ISSN:
1551-2916
Source:
Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
Topics:
Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Production Engineering, Mining and Metallurgy, Traffic Engineering, Precision Mechanics
,
Physics
Notes:
Improvement in the thermal conductivity of aluminum nitride (AlN) can be realized by additives that have a high thermodynamic affinity toward alumina (Al2O3), as is clearly demonstrated in the aluminum nitride-yttria (AlN-Y2O3) system. A wide variety of lanthanide dopants are compared at equimolar lanthanide oxide:alumina (Ln2O3: Al2O3, where Ln is a lanthanide element) ratios, with samaria (Sm2O3) and lutetia (Lu2O3) being the dopants that give the highest- and lowest-thermal-conductivity AlN composites, respectively. The choice of the sintering aid and the dopant level is much more important than the microstructure that evolves during sintering. A contiguous AlN phase provides rapid heat conduction paths, even at short sintering times. AlN contiguity decreases slightly as the annealing times increase in the range of 1–1000 min at 1850°C. However, a substantial increase in thermal conductivity results, because of purification of AlN grains by dissolution-reprecipitation and bulk diffusion. Removal of grain-boundary phases, with a concurrent increase in AlN contiguity, occurs at high annealing temperatures or at long times and is a natural consequence of high dihedral angles (poor wetting) in liquidphase-sintered AlN ceramics.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1151-2916.1997.tb03000.x
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