Dispersion behavior of HfC-based nanopowders in ethanol

The dispersion behavior of two different types of ultrafine HfC-based powders in ethanol was investigated using polyethyleneimine (PEI) as a dispersant. The first type was synthesized by carbothermal reduction using a modified spark plasma sintering technique (d50: 125 nm). For the 10 wt% HfC suspensions, the highest zeta potential value (67.7 mV), the least sediment after sedimentation test for one day, and finest particle sizes were obtained when the concentration of PEI was 2.0 wt%. The concentrated HfC slurries with a solid loading of 40 vol% were achieved using 1.0 wt% PEI. The second type was mixing the HfC powder with HfSi2-C additives using a high-energy ball milling. The concentrated HfC slurry containing 20 wt% of HfSi2-C sintering additives was prepared up to 50 vol% solid loading using 0.50 wt% PEI. This is the first report for producing highly concentrated HfC-based nano slurries, which were highly suitable for the wet process of ultrahigh-temperature ceramic matrix composites (UTHCMCs).