Densified Yb-, Y-, Dy-, Sin- and Nd-α-Sialon ceramics were prepared by two-step hot sintering. The variation of microstructure and properties with different rare-earth was investigated. The ceramics doped with smaller cations （Yb3＋, y3＋ and Dy3＋） are fully composed of α-Sialon, while in the larger cations （Sm3＋ and Nd3＋） doped ceramics also exist a few intergranular phase Mt （Re2Si3-xAlxO3＋xN4-x） in triple-point pockets. With increasing the radius of the rare-earth cations, the elongated α-Sialon grains form instead of the equiaxed grains in Yb-α-Sialon, and the aspect ratio of grains increases. All the ceramics possess high hardness, and the value of 21 GPa is achieved for Yb- and Y-α-Sialon. With increasing the ionic size of rare-earth, the hardness decreases slightly but the toughness tends to increase. Nd-α-Sialon possesses the highest toughness with the value of 5.4 MPa·m^1/2.
Chunfeng LIU Feng YE Yu ZHOU Yongliang WANG Jiancun RAO
