Synthesis of SiC Nano-powder from TEOS by RF Induction Thermal Plasma

Silicon carbide (SiC) has recently drawn an enormous industrial interest because of its useful mechanical properties such as thermal resistance, abrasion resistance and thermal conductivity at high temperature.RF Thermal plasma (PL-35 Induction Plasma, Tekna CO., Canada) has been utilized for synthesis of high purity SiC powder from cheap inorganic solution (Tetraethyl Orthosilicate, TEOS).It is found that the powders by thermal plasma consist of SiC with free carbon and amorphous silica (SiO 2 ) and, by thermal treatment and HF treatment, the impurities are driven off resulting high purity SiC nano-powder.The synthesized SiC powder lies below 30 nm and its properties such microstructure, phase composition, specific surface area and free carbon content have been characterized by X-ay diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), thermogravimetric (TG) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET).