15T001 High Performance

Fibres
B.Tech. TextileTechnology
2018 Semester 7 Elective
Lecture8
Department of Textile Technology Delivered By:
Dr Arun Vijayan
Professor Textile Department
Head R&D and Product Development
PSG’s COE InduTech
PSG College of Technology
Coimbatore 641001
Email: avn@psgtech.ac.in
 Ceramic Fibres
Ceramic- Inorganic non-metallic polycrystalline solids, as opposed to th
noncrystalline glasses.
The distinction between ceramic and glass has become difficult now, becaus
ceramics produced from new precursors or sol - gel routes can be amorphous.

Figure 1. Classification of non-

metallic inorganic fibres
First ceramics were the pottery objects made up of clay and were developed fo
refractory insulation.
Traditional ceramic has kaolinite as clay mineral that is an alumina wherea
modern ceramics include silicon carbide, tungsten carbide, aluminium oxid
(alumina) fibres.
Ceramic materials:
• Hard, have low densities (compared to metals),
• high compressive strength and
• very good thermal resistance and
• strength at higher temperature.
Due to their high temperature performance, these are useful as reinforcement i
metal and ceramic matrix composites, where the structures are required to operat
at high temperature and under oxidizing/corrosive environments.
Examples: In- heat exchangers, first containment walls for fusion reactors, ga
turbines, as well as for high temperaturegas filtration.
The low strength of these materials is significantly increased when the ceramic
are in the form of fine filaments composed of sub-micron grains.
The requirements for high-performance reinforcements would therefore b
fulfilled if such bulk ceramics were transformed into fibres.
 Production of Ceramic fibres
Production include powder compaction and sintering, cannot be used for makin
fine fibres.
Also, the conventional spinning and drawing from a melt cannot be used fo
ceramics as their melting points can exceed 2000 °C.
The ceramic fibres can be produced by either a direct or indirect process.

Figure 2. Sintering process of producing objects from particles

 Direct Process
The direct production of fine ceramic
fibres requires the spinning of
precursors(salt solution, sols or
precursor melts) into fibres, which are
then heat treated and pyrolysed for a
very short time.
The spinning dopes used in the direct
process can be based on:
Molecularly dispersed precursors
Colloidally dispersed precursors
Inorganic polymers
Coarse ceramic particles
Figure 3. Direct method for obtaining ceramic fib
 Indirect Process
The process involves two steps:
ep 1: Organic substrate/template fibres are
aked with the precursor material or precursor
aterial is deposited on the surface.
ep 2: The inorganic fibre is then formed by
rolysis of the organic template fibre.
bres can be broadly divided into following
o categories:
xide fibres : Silica fibres, alumina fibres,
umina-silica fibres, alumina zirconia fibres
on oxide fibres: Silicon carbide(SiC),silicon
rbon nitride, silicon nitride(SiN) Figure 4. Indirect method for obtaining Ceramic
 Oxide Based Fibres
Made from oxides with high melting point are suitable for application
where exposure to oxidizing atmosphere and high temperatures (abov
1400 °C) are required.
Currently available commercially are mostly based on Al2O3- or Al2O
/SiO2 ceramics.
They possess high tensile strength and modulus, and are stable agains
oxidation at high temperatures dueto their oxidic nature.
However, even the best polycrystalline oxide fibres are prone to cree
under load at 1100 °C over long time periods.
The larger grains tend to grow at the expense of smaller grains becaus
of diffusion processes at grain boundaries, which can lead to brittl
fibres.
 Alumina-based Fibres

Made by extruding aqueous solution of aluminium salts such a

aluminium oxychloride (Al2(OH)5Cl) blended with rheological aids.
By spinning and heat treatment route. The aqueous nanosols based o
aluminium hydroxides can also bespun directly.
Converted into nanometer-sized particles to form a colloida
suspension, or sol.
Sol is spun into the gel fibre, which is dried and sintered to form th
required ceramics.
 Manufacture of alumina fibre
At temperatures 400 °C 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.
For use of alumina fibres above 1100
°C, the nucleation, growth and
porosity are controlled by adding
either silica precursors or seeds for α-
alumina formation
Figure 5. Process steps for manufacture of alumin
Preparation of Ceramic fibres

Figure 6. Preparation of Ceramic fibres

Properties of ceramic fibres
 Non-Oxide Ceramic Fibres
Based on SiC and Si-C-(N)-O materials.
High values for tensile strength and modulus higher than oxide fibre
and due to their structure.
They have lower creep rates at high temperatures when compared t
the polycrystalline oxide fibres.
Disadvantages of these fibres are their susceptibility to oxidation
which leads to fibre degradation inan oxidizing atmosphere over time
The lower the oxygen content of the fibre itself, the better its oxidatio
resistance.
 Silicon Carbide-based fibres
pinning and heat treatment :
Silicon carbide (SiC) fibres are commercially produced under the trade name of Nicalon, b
melt spinning of organosilicon polymers such as polydimethyl silane.
The meltspun filament is heated in the air to 190 °C to crosslink the polydimethyl silan
molecules by oxygen and then heat treated at 800-1500 °C in nitrogen or vacuum to form crystallin
tructure.
During heat treatment, hydrogen and methane gases are evolved at ~ 700 °C and the silico
arbide fibre is formed as per the following scheme

Crosslinked poly dimethyl silane [SiC+CH4+H2]:

The conversion to ceramic fibres occurs by pyrolysis above 1200 °C. The choices of t
recursor polymers and of the crosslinking processes have a great influence on the final compositi
nd microstructure of the ceramic fibres.
 By chemical vapour deposition
Both tungsten and carbon cores are used as templates for making silicon carbid
fibres by CVD route.
In commercial production, the gas mixture is introduced at multiple injectio
points of the vertical reactor at temperature between 1400 and 1500 °C at an earl
stage of deposition.
Passage through the reactor is of the order of one or two minutes and results in
fibre with a diameter greater than 100mm.

The fibres obtained have amorphous structures based on Si-C-N-O, Si-N or Si

B-N-C, but recrystallise from 1200 °C or show poor oxidation resistance.
Boron nitride fibres with oriented turbostatic structures are also being develope
for specific applications, but they are intrinsically not adapted to resist oxidation.