Fabrication and thermal conductivity of CeO2–Ce3Si2 composite

Abstract

Various compositions of CeO2-Ce3Si2 (0, 10, 30, 50, and 100 wt%Ce3Si2) composites were fabricated using conventional sintering and spark plasma sintering. Lower relative density, enhanced interdiffusion of oxygen and silicon, and silicide agglomerations from the congruent melting of Ce3Si2 at 1390 degrees C were only observed from conventionally-sintered pellets. Thermal conductivity of spark plasma sintered CeO2-Ce3Si2 composites was calculated from the measured thermal diffusivity, specific heat, and density, which exhibited dense (>90 %TD) and homogeneous microstructure. The composite with 50 wt%Ce3Si2 exhibited 55% higher thermal conductivity than CeO2 at 500 degrees C, and 81% higher at 1000 degrees C. (c) 2020 Korean Nuclear Society, Published by Elsevier Korea LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).