Published on January 2022 | Materials Science

Effect of boron nitride (BN) on mechanical and dielectric properties of fused silica ceramic composites

In the current study, response surface methodology (RSM) was successfully used to the method of preparation of fused silica (SiO2) ceramic composites using gelcasting, a near net shape method. The effects of input parameters like solid loading (SL), monomer content (MC), ratio of monomer (RM), and additive boron nitride (BN) and on responses such as flexural strength (FS), porosity (Por.), and dielectric constant (DE) were studied. RSM with central composite face-centered design with 6 center points approach used for planning the tests. The relation between the input variables on the output was investigated and modeled. Three regression models were established using RSM related independent input variables to describe the FS, Por., and DE as the response. The uniqueness of the established model is examined using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at 95% confidence level. The numerical investigation of the results showed that in range studied, the three process variables have significant effect on the responses. The obtained mathematical models have high R2 values (97.66% for FS, 98.45% for Por., and 94.34% for DE) show the good relation between the test and predicted data. The optimal estimates found using RSM was practically confirmed and was 66.30 MPa FS, 23.66% Por., and 4.307 DE acquired at 47.97% SL, 15 wt% MC, 3 RM, and 9.68 wt% BN, respectively.