Consolidation of Nanostructured β‐SiC by Spark Plasma Sintering

Nanostructured β‐SiC, with crystallite size in the range of 5–20 nm in agglomerates of 50–150 nm, was formed by reactive high‐energy ball milling and consolidated to a relative density of 98% by sintering at 1700°C without the use of additives. X‐ray line broadening analysis gave a crystallite size of 25 nm, while transmission electron microscopy observations showed the crystallite size to be in the range of 30–50 nm. Evidence demonstrating the role of a disorder–order transformation in the densification process is provided by changes in the diffraction peak patterns and in the integral width with temperature.