Thermal plasma synthesis of SiC

Abstract

Synthesis of silicon carbide has been carried out using thermal plasma processing technique using SiO₂ as the solid feed and CH₄ as the gaseous reducing agent. Thermochemical calculations have been performed varying the molar ratio of silicon dioxide and methane to determine the feasibility of the reaction. Experiments using a molar ratio of SiO₂:CH₄ equal to 1:2 produced maximum yield of SiC of about 65 mol % at a solid feed rate of 5 g/min. Mostly spherical morphology with some nanorods has been observed. The presence of Si had been observed and was quantified using XRD, HRTEM, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron microscopy (XPS). Si acts as a nucleating agent for SiC nanorods to grow.

Keywords

Silicon carbide / Thermal plasma / High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) / Raman spectroscopy / X-ray photoelectron microscopy (XPS)

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