An_Introduction_to_Ultra-High_Temperature_Ceramics.pdf

Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics ——An Introduction to Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics Professor William G. Fahrenholtz and Professor Greg E. Hilmas, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology 1.Introduction Ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTCs) are a class of materials that can be used in environments that exhibit extremes in temperature, chemical reactivity, erosive attack, etc. 1 Extreme environments could be considered as being encountered in applications including handling of molten metals and electrodes for electric arc furnaces, but this article will focus on materials being examined for aerospace applications such as hypersonic flight, scramjet propulsion, rocket propulsion, and atmospheric re-entry. Figure 1. Conceptual design for the X43-A, a reusable hypersonic aerospace vehicle that would utilize UHTC leading edges and control surfaces, Image courtesy of NASA. A variety of criteria can be used to define UHTCs including ultimate use temperature, environmental resistance, and strength at elevated temperature. For this article, UHTCs are defined as compounds with melting temperatures in excess of 3000°C. 2 Using the melting temperature criterion, only a few materials can be classified as UHTCs, most of which are borides, carbides, or nitrides of early transition metals. Table 1 lists some compounds that meet the melting temperature criterion. From the 1950s through about 1970, many of these compounds were studied extensively in the U.S. and U.S.S.R. for potential aerospace applications. After a period of relative inactivity, research on UHTCs has experienced a resurgence in recent years with significant efforts in countries including China, Japan, Italy, Ukraine, and the United States, among others. Table 1. Some ceramics with reported melting temperatures of 3000°C and higher. Melting temperatures estimated from phase diagrams. 3 Compounds Melting Temperature (℃) TiB2 3