Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol.87, No.7, 1384-1387, 2004
Fabrication of textured Si3N4 ceramics by slip casting in a high magnetic field
Developing the texture of ceramics is one of the effective ways for improving properties. Although the magnetic susceptibility of nonmagnetic materials is very small, there is a possibility to control the crystal orientation using a high magnetic field due to a magnetic anisotropy. In this study, Si3N4 ceramics were manufactured by a slip-casting process under high magnetic field and pressureless sintering. The texture of Si3N4 ceramics was studied using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron micrographs of polished and plasma-etched specimens. It has been found that most of the a,b-axes texture of beta-Si3N4 grains aligned to the magnetic field direction.