Highly creep-resistant alumina-SiC nanocomposites processed by spark plasma sintering

In this work, spark plasma sintering is successfully applied to prepare alumina-5 vol.% SiC micronanocomposites with almost completely intergranular microstructure. The creep behaviour of these materials is examined at 1200 degrees C under stresses ranging from 90 to 140 MPa. It is shown experimentally that the creep deformation process is controlled through a lattice-dislocation mechanism and that an efficient way to further improve the alumina creep resistance is to reduce the SiC particle size. (C) 2012 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.