BY

SIVA V
2018606034
 Ceramic fiber is known as a “refractory
material”, a particular substance that has a
heat-resistant property. It primarily consists of
aluminum silicate, which includes fiber made
from various polycrystalline fibers and molten
glass. As an excellent material for insulation,
ceramic fiber comes in several different types
and can be used for numerous applications
 Non oxide fibers:
Silicon carbide(SiC),silicon carbon nitride
Si-C-N, silicon nitride(SiN)

 Oxide fibers :
Silica fibers , alumina fibers AL2O3,
alumina-silica fibers AL2O3-Si, alumina zirconia
fibers Al2O3-Zr
 Oxide ceramic fibers made from oxides with
high melting point are suitable for applications
where exposure to oxidizing atmosphere and
high temperatures (above 1400 °C) are
required.
 Oxidation resistance

 high tensile strength and modulus,

 stable against oxidation at high temperatures

due to their oxide nature
 Moderate temperature resistance capability

(up to 11000 C)
 Chemical stability

 Preferred for corrosive environment over non

oxide fiber
 Young's
Compositio Strain to
Diameter Density Strength Modulus
fiber type Manufacturer n failure(%
(m) (g/cm )
3 (GPa) (GPa)
(wt%) )

α-Al2O2 fibers Du Pont 99.9% Al2O3 20 3.92 1.2 0.29 414

85% Al2O3
Aluminia silica
3M 12 3.4 2.1 0.81 260
fibers 15%SiO2
 Non - oxide ceramic fibers are based on SiC
and Si-C-(N)–O materials. fibers exhibit high
values for tensile strength and modulus higher
than oxide fibers
 Due to their structure, which is amorphous in
many cases, they have lower creep rates at high
temperatures when compared to the
polycrystalline oxide fibers.
 High temperature structural application
(>11000 C)
 Lower creep and grain growth rate – better
dimensional stability
 Greater thermal and electrical conductivity
 Higher strength and lower density
 Disadvantages of these fibers are their
susceptibility to oxidation, which leads to fiber
degradation in an oxidizing atmosphere over
time. The lower the oxygen content of the fiber
itself, the better its oxidation resistance.
 DIRECT METHOD
The direct production of fine ceramic fibers
requires the spinning of precursors (salt solution,
sols or precursor melts) into fibers, which are then
heat treated and pyrolysed for a very short time.
The spinning dopes used in the direct process can
be based on:
 Coarse ceramic particles

 Inorganic polymers

 Colloidally dispersed precursors

 The sol-gel method is generally used to produce oxide-
based ceramic fibers.
 Theoretically, the “sol” is composed of either colloidal
particles, which may be crystalline or amorphous, or
polymers in a solvent. The “gel” includes a three-
dimensional (3-D) continuous network that covers a
liquid phase, and in a colloidal gel, the stacking of
particles leads to the formation of this network
 Compared with the other processing techniques,
relatively low operation temperatures are required
during sol-gel route to fabricate silica, alumina,
zirconia, titania, or mixed oxide fibers.
 In one method alumina fiber is made by extruding
aqueous solution of aluminium salts such as
aluminium oxychloride (Al2(OH)5Cl) blended with
rheological aids.
 The aqueous nanosols based on aluminium hydroxides
can also be spun directly.
 Simple molecular precursors are converted into
nanometer-sized particles to form a colloidal
suspension, or sol.
 In order to assist the spinning process, the sols are
made more concentrated and viscous by the addition
of a small amount of organic polymer which would
cause an increase in the viscosity This sol is spun into
the gel fiber, which is dried and sintered to form the
required ceramics.
 At temperatures higher than 400 °C and up to
around 1000 °C, the formation of grains of 10 to
100 nm, size takes place with finely divided
porosity. Above 1100 °C, stable α-alumina
nucleates resulting in fast growth of micron-sized
grains together with the coalescence of pores. Such
fibers are extremely brittle and cannot be used.
 For use of alumina fibers above 1100 °C, the
nucleation, growth and porosity are controlled by
adding either silica precursors or seeds for α-
alumina formation to the fiber precursors and has
led to two classes of alumina-based fibers, one
consisting primarily of α-alumina grains and the
other of transitional alumina phases together with
another phase.
 Silicon carbide (SiC) fibers are commercially
produced under the trade name of Nicalon TM,
by melt spinning of organosilicon polymers
such as polydimethyl silane.
 The meltspun filament is heated in the air to
190 °C to crosslink the polydimethyl silane
molecules by oxygen and then heat treated at
800-1500 °C in nitrogen or vacuum to form
crystalline structure.
 During heat treatment, hydrogen and methane
gases are evolved at ~ 700 °C and the silicon
carbide fiber is formed as per the following
scheme
 Me Me Me
Organosilicon precursors CH2
Me Si Cl Me Si Cl Me Si C
H
Me Cl Cl
Trimethylchloro- Dichlorodimethyl- Vinyldimethylchloro-
silane (TMCS) silane (DCDMS) silane (VDMCS)
Dechloronation rearrangement cross-linking f=1 f=2 f=3

R R R H R R
Preceramic Si Si Si C Si N Si O
polymers
R R n R H n R H n R n
Polysilane Polycarbosilane Polysilazane Polysiloxane
Shaping
curing R = H, CH3, C2H5, C6H5, CH2 KCH, etc.
pyrolysis

Ceramic Amorphous: Si C O Si N C Si O C
products Crystalline: SiC, C, SiO2 Si3N4, SiC SiC, C, SiO2
 The conversion to ceramic fibers occurs by
pyrolysis above 1200 °C. The choices of the
precursor polymers and of the crosslinking
processes have a great influence on the final
composition and microstructure of the ceramic
fibers.
 In this process, the slurry is composed of three
basic components: alumina particulates (either in
solid or in aqueous form), suspension of alumina
pre-cursor (e.g., aluminum chlorohydroxide), and
organic polymer.
 The polymer component provides the viscosity
increase and facilitates the extrusion of slurry from
the spinneret.
 Once the slurry passes through the nozzles, the
green (unfired) fibers are wrapped onto a roller and
exposed to calcination (firing below sintering
temperature) to eliminate water and volatiles and to
control the shrinkage.
 the calcined fibers are sintered to remove porosity
and convert the alumina precursor to the stable α-
alumina phase. The average diameter of the
manufactured fibers is approx-imately 20 μm in 200
filament tows.
 On the other hand in the indirect process,
ceramic fibers are not obtained by spinning
process, but by using some other approach. The
process involves two steps:
 Step 1: Organic substrate/template fibers are
soaked with the precursor material or precursor
material is deposited on the surface.
 Step 2: The inorganic fiber is then formed by
pyrolysis of the organic template fiber.
 Both tungsten and carbon cores are used as templates
for making silicon carbide fibers by CVD route.
 In commercial production, the gas mixture is
introduced at multiple injection points of the vertical
reactor.
 The temperature along the reactor passes through a
maximum between 1400 and 1500 °C at an early stage
of deposition.
 Passage through the reactor is of the order of one or
two minutes and results in a fiber with a diameter
greater than 100mm.
 Various carbon-containing silanes have been used as
reactants. In a typical process, with CH3SiCl3 as the
reactant, SiC is deposited on the core as follows
  Cf+ Si(g) = SiCf (1)
 2Cf+ SiO(g) = SiCf+ CO(g) (2)
 CH3SiCl3 = SiC + 3HCl
 Due to their notable high temperature
performance, these are useful as reinforcement
in metal and ceramic matrix composites, where
the structures are required to operate at high
temperature
 Blanket - Ceramic fiber blanket is perfect for
situations with direct exposure to flames.
 Insulation for power plant, turbine, thermal
reactor, generator, and nuclear applications
 Cloth - Safety and protective insulation cover,
curtains, blanket, welding blanket
 Insulation wrapping material for cable, wire,
pipe, exhaust, etc.
 Gaskets, tadpole gasket and other high
temperature insulation sea
 Rope - winding for high-temperature pipes,
expansion joints as well as heated steel
junctions
 Seal, packing or gasket for doors/openings in
ovens, stoves, furnaces, boilers