Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Process for producing high purity silicon nitride by the direct reaction between elemental silicon and nitrogen-hydrogen liquid reactants

Patent ·
OSTI ID:7019717

A process is disclosed for producing, at a low temperature, a high purity reaction product consisting essentially of silicon, nitrogen, and hydrogen which can then be heated to produce a high purity alpha silicon nitride. The process comprises: reacting together a particulate elemental high purity silicon with a high purity nitrogen-hydrogen reactant in its liquid state (such as ammonia or hydrazine) having the formula: N[sub n]H[sub (n+m)] wherein: n=1--4 and m=2 when the nitrogen-hydrogen reactant is straight chain, and m=0 when the nitrogen-hydrogen reactant is cyclic. High purity silicon nitride can be formed from this intermediate product by heating the intermediate product at a temperature of from about 1200--1700 C for a period from about 15 minutes up to about 2 hours to form a high purity alpha silicon nitride product. The discovery of the existence of a soluble Si-N-H intermediate enables chemical pathways to be explored previously unavailable in conventional solid state approaches to silicon-nitrogen ceramics. 1 figure.

Assignee:
Dept. of Energy, Washington, DC (United States)
Patent Number(s):
US 4935214; A
Application Number:
PPN: US 7-380695
OSTI ID:
7019717
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English