Is an alumina-whisker-reinforced alumina composite the most efficient choice for an oxidation-resistant high-temperature ceramic?

The search of a competitive ceramic material for structural applications demands several requisites: a simple microstructure with easy reproducibility, good intrinsic mechanical properties and most of all, an optimal oxidation resistance. This later point is a challenging point for most ultrahigh refractory materials. In this work an alumina (Al2O3) whisker-reinforced Al2O3 composite prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS) is studied. It will be shown that, although the microstructure is quite similar to that of pure monolithic one, there is a notorious enhancement of the high-temperature deformation resistance, reaching up to one order of magnitude over the pure Al2O3 specimen. On the other hand, the activation energy of these composites increases notably. The results are explained in terms of an original model. A comparison with reported data shows that such composite is as efficient as a SiC-whisker-reinforced Al2O3 composite, with the advantage of its oxidation resistance and much less fabrication cost.