Improved Sliding‐Wear Resistance in In Situ ‐Toughened Silicon Carbide

The effect of microstructure on the sliding‐wear properties has been studied in two types of pressureless liquid‐phase‐sintered (LPS) SiC ceramics, one with coarse, in situ ‐grown elongated grains and the other with fine, equiaxed grains. Elongated‐grain LPS SiC has been found to have dramatically improved sliding‐wear properties over equiaxed‐grain LPS SiC, which has been attributed to the interlocking network of elongated SiC grains. The introduction of an interlocking network of elongated grains represents a new guideline for the microstructural design of polycrystalline ceramics that are both sliding‐wear resistant and toughened.