Silicon carbide plasma synthesis

Most of the plasma conversion processes are conducted after the discharge, where only the energy-carrier gas (often argon) is heated up (see Section 7.5.5). Conversion of a solid oxide into a carbide can be also performed inside of the RF-ICP discharge. As an example, consider the plasma synthesis of silicon carbide from silica in the presence of CH4 and H2 (Evans etal., 1968 Ttrmanov, 1981) ... 

Carbides of metals and other elements have been produced by this approach, including carbides of boron, silicon, titanium, zirconium, hafnium, vanadium, niobium, molybdenum, tungsten, tantalnm, and thorium (Funke, Klementiev, Kosukhin, 1969 Sheppard Wilson, 1972 MacKinnon Wickens, 1973 Chase, 1974 Steiger Wilson, 1974 Swaney, 1974 MacKinnon Renben, 1975). The produced caibide particles are very small their diameter is usually about 20-200 mu. Halides are mixed with hydrocarbons, usually in a ratio H2 Me = 2-30. The gas mixture is heated up in plasma to temperatures of 1300-4000 K time of synthesis exceeds 50 ms. As an example, production of submicron boron carbide powder from gaseous boron trichloride and methane occurs in the strongly endothermic process ... 

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