Effects of SiC content on the microstructure and mechanical performance of stereolithography-based SiC ceramics

In this work, the SiC ceramics were fabricated by stereolithography (SLA) combined with reactive melt infiltration (RMI), and the microstructure and mechanical properties of SiC ceramics were optimized by adjusting the solid content and impregnating phenolic resin. The bulk density and bending strength of SiC ceramics were positively correlated with the proportion of SiC content. The SiC phase content was increased from 48.10% to 61.42% with the solid content increased from 30 vol% to 45 vol%. When the solid content was 40 vol%, the bulk density and bending strength of SiC ceramics attained the highest value of 2.85 g/cm3 and 234.8 MPa. Meanwhile, the pyrolysis shrinkage of SiC ceramics along the non-additive direction and the additive direction was 4.83% and 1.21%, respectively. This research has successfully demonstrated the direct correlation of microstructure and content of SiC with the performance parameters of SiC ceramics fabricated by SLA.