Electrostatic Assembly Preparation of High-Toughness Zirconium Diboride-Based Ceramic Composites with Enhanced Thermal Shock Resistance Performance

The central problem of using ceramic as a structural material is its brittleness, which associated with rigid covalent or ionic bonds. Whiskers or fibers of strong ceramics such as silicon carbide (SiC) or silicon nitride (Si3N4) are widely embedded in a ceramic matrix to improve the strength and toughness. The incorporation of these insulating fillers can impede the thermal flow in ceramic matrix, thus decrease its thermal shock resistance that is required in some practical applications. Here we demonstrate that the toughness and thermal shock resistance of zirconium diboride (ZrB2)/SiC composites can be improved simultaneously by introducing graphene into composites via electrostatic assembly and subsequent sintering treatment. The incorporated graphene creates weak interfaces of grain boundaries (GBs) and optimal thermal conductance paths inside composites. In comparison to pristine ZrB2–SiC composites, the toughness of (2.0%) ZrB2–SiC/graphene composites exhibited a 61% increasing (from 4.3 to 6.93 MPa·m1/2) after spark plasma sintering (SPS); the retained strength after thermal shock increased as high as 74.8% at 400 °C and 304.4% at 500 °C. Present work presents an important guideline for producing high-toughness ceramic-based composites with enhanced thermal shock properties.