Effects of rare-earth oxides on grain boundary strength of silicon nitride ceramics

This study investigates the grain boundary (GB) strengths for Si3N4 ceramics doped with 3 wt% RE2O3 (RE = Y, La, or Lu) and 7 wt% MgO, using microcantilever beam specimens having different misorientation angles of the two adjacent grains. The measured strengths are so high that they are comparable to the theoretical strength of the intergranular glassy film (IGF). They are also widely scattered with a Weibull modulus of 3.0. The strength depends on the type of RE2O3 and increases in order of Y