Novel SiC/C composite targets for the production of radioisotopes for nuclear applications

A partially porous SiC ceramic, reinforced with 30 vol% short carbon fibers, was hot pressed and characterized as potential ISOL target for nuclear applications. Powder milling and hot pressing were effective for the realization of a ceramic with about 40% interconnected porosity in the 0.6-0.8 mu m size range. A fiber-free porous SiC material was also synthesized for the sake of comparison. Compression strength of the fiber-rich SiC passed from about 200 MPa at room temperature to about 120 MPa upon testing at 1200 ?. The thermal conductivity was higher than the fiber-free SiC and other state-of-art ISOL target materials and was 48 W/m.K at 600? and decreased to 17 W/m.K at 1400 C, owing to the porosity. Remarkably, this fiber-rich ceramic in form of thin disk, possessed suitable thermo-mechanical behavior to successfully withstand a 350 C thermal gradient without failure.