Fully dense, diamond-silicon carbide composites are prepared from ball-milled microcrystalline diamond/amorphous silicon powder mixture. The ball-milled powder is sintered (P=5–8 GPa, T=1400K–2300K) to form composites having high
Fracture Toughness. A composite made at 5 GPa/1673K had a measured
Fracture Toughness of 12 MPa·m1/2. By contrast, liquid infiltration of silicon into diamond powder at 5 GPa/1673K produces a composite with higher
Hardness but lower
Fracture Toughness.
X-ray diffraction patterns and Raman spectra indicate that amorphous silicon is partially transformed into nanocrystalline silicon at 5 GPa/873K, and nanocrystalline silicon carbide forms at higher temperatures.
