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Tristructural-isotropic (TRISO) particle, with spherical ceramic fuel particle kernels followed by three layers of pyrolytic carbon and one layer of silicon carbide (SiC), has been successful now in high temperature gas cooled reactor (HTGR). The silicon carbide (SiC) layer used in TRISO coated fuel particles is normally produced at high temperatures (~1600°C) via fluidized bed chemical vapor deposition from methyltrichlorosilane (MTS) in a hydrogen environment. The precursor is strong corrosive and the process is not environmentally friendly. In this work, hexamethyldisilane (HMDS) was used instead of MTS and the deposition behavior was investigated via fluidized bed chemical vapor deposition method. Different experimental parameters were tested, such as deposition temperature (800~1450°C) and gas flow ratio of Ar: H2. The deposition rates were obtained and compared. It was found that the optimization parameters of highest deposition rate is 1000°C with the ratio of Ar: H2 of 1:1. The microstructures of the products were further investigated by SEM, XRD and Raman scattering. From the X-ray diffraction pattern it could be inferred that the β-SiC phase was obtained, and free carbon was also found in deposition products. Different types of SiC layer, including dense and porous layer can be prepared. The experimental results validated that HMDS was an alternative precursor for preparing the SiC layer in producing the TRISO particle and other SiC-coated materials in lower temperatures

Silicon carbide nanowires have been extensively studied because of their unique physical and chemical properties. They can be applied in high temperature, high frequency, high power, and corrosive environments, and have a wide range of applications in electronics, chemical industry, energy and other fields. In this paper, SiC nanowires with high output were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition method using methyltrichlorosilane as raw material. The influences of the catalyst and temperature were studied. SiC nanochains were also obtained by adding Al2O3 powder under appropriate temperature controlled strategy. These two kinds of one-dimensional SiC nanomaterials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) methods.

CVD SiC material with many excellent physical and chemical properties was used widely in the field of aerospace as reflector materials. In addition, CVD SiC thin film materials because of its compact structure, high purity can also be used as precision optical components of semiconductor industry. But the CVD process is a complex chemical process and the reaction process is very time consuming. Research of chemical vapor deposition for preparing silicon carbide process mechanism is important significance for the expansion of the application of silicon carbide. In this paper, CVD SiC coatings were fabricated by the pyrolysis of methyltrichlorosilane (MTS) in hydrogen at a low pressure. XRD and EDS were used to characterize the component of intermediate. SEM was used to observe the surface morphology and microstructure of coatings. The results indicated that key problem to be solved is to control the growth rate of SiC for high quality deposition coating, while the growth rate is also affected by process parameters. To obtain the materials to meet the use requirements, the need for control of each parameter in the reaction process.

The decomposition pathways in CVD preparing SiC with CH3SiCl3-H2 precursors was searched theoretically, which involves 54 well-defined transition states. The geometries of the species were optimized by employing the B3PW91/6-311G(d,p) method. The transition states as well as their linked intermediates were confirmed with frequency and the intrinsic reaction coordinates analyses. The energy barriers and the reaction energies were evaluated with the accurate model chemistry method at G3(MP2) level after a non-dynamical electronic correlation detection. The heat capacities and entropies were obtained with statistical thermodynamics. The Gibbs free energies at 298.15 K and 1200 K for all of the reactions were reported. The energies at any temperature could be derived classically by using the analytical heat capacities. All the possible elementary reactions, including both direct decomposition and the radical attacking dissociations for CH2SiCl3, CH3SiCl2 and CH2SiCl2 were examined. A free radical reaction mechanism was proposed.

Uniform nanosized β-SiC powders have been prepared in a flow reactor by thermal pyrolysis using organometallic precursors with different C/Si mole ratios such as methyltrichlorosilane and triphenylsilane. The temperature was varied from 1200°C to 1400°C. In order to examine the pyrolysis residue after the reaction, the sample was collected and analyzed with XRD, Raman and TEM. The X-ray diffraction result of the pyrolysis residue shows that the diffraction peaks around 35°, 60°, and 73° correspond to the beta SiC phase. All the diffraction peaks were quite broad, which indicated that the SiC powder was in the early stage of crystallization at this heat treatment temperature.

The initial pathways in the CVD process of preparing silicon carbides with CH3SiCl3-H2 precursors was searched theoretically, which involves 21 well-defined transition states. The geometries of the species were optimized by employing the B3PW91/6-311G(d,p) method. The energy barriers and the reaction energies were evaluated with the accurate model chemistry method at G3(MP2) level after a non-dynamical electronic correlation detection. The heat capacities and entropies were obtained with statistical thermodynamics. The Gibbs free energies at 298.15 K and 1200 K for all the possible elementary reactions, including both direct decomposition and the radical attacking dissociations for MTS were reported. The energies at any temperature could be derived classically by using the analytical heat capacities. It was found that the free radical reactions have clearly kinetic ascendency to be the most efficient decomposition pathway.

Six binary silane systems were chosen to calculate the activity coefficients (γ) and free energies of mixing (ΔGm). These systems included: methyldichlorosilane + methyltrichlorosilane, methyldichlorosilane + methylvinyldichlorosilane, methyldichlorosilane + toluene, methyltrichlorosilane + methylvinyldichlorosilane, methyltrichlorosilane + toluene, methylvinyldichlorosilane + toluene. Based on the Antoine constants, critical parameters of the pure components and Wilson model parameters, γ and ΔGmwere calculated. The influence factors of these thermodynamic properties were also discussed.

Six ternary silane systems were selected for the separation factor (s) calculation. These systems were: methyldichlorosilane+methyltrichlorosilane+benzene, methyldichlorosilane+ methyltrichlorosilane+dimethyldichlorosilane, methyldichlorosilane+methyltrichlorosilane+ toluene, methyltrichlorosilane+methylvinyldichlorosilane+toluene,methyldichlorosilane+methyltrichloro- silane+methylvinyldichlorosilane, dimethyldiethoxysilane+methyltriethoxysilane+ethanol. Based on the Antoine constants, critical parameters of the pure components and Wilson model parameters, the separation factors were obtained through a program. The effect of temperature and mole fraction to s was also discussed.

Prediction of the behavior of systems containing halogenated silanes required modification of the mixing rules used for solution models. In this work, interaction parameters for the characterization of binary systems of methylvinyldichlorosilane, methyltrichlorosilane, methyldichlorosilane and toluene at 101.3 kpa were evaluated accounting for the ideality of the vapor phase. The experimental measurements of liquid phase composition and bubble point temperature were found to be well represented by the Wilson model. Computed values of the vapor phase mole fractions, activity coefficients and excess Gibbs free energies from the model were presented and discussed.

SiC is fabricated by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on graphite and Si3N4ceramic respectively. The morphology, composition, grain size and electrical conductivity of SiC deposited on graphite (CVD-SiC(C)) and on Si3N4ceramic (CVD-SiC(N)) are investigated and compared. The morphology of CVD-SiC(C)and CVD-SiC(N)is much different with each other. The grain size of CVD-SiC(C)is bigger than that of CVD-SiC(N). It is nearly stoichiometric in CVD-SiC(C), while carbon-rich in CVD-SiC(N), so the electrical conductivity and dielectric loss of CVD-SiC(N)are much higher than that of CVD-SiC(C). As the annealing temperature increases, the grain size and electrical conductivity of CVD-SiC(C)and CVD-SiC(N)both increase.

The epitaxial growth at 100 µm/h on on-axis 4H-SiC substrates is demonstrated in this study. Chloride-based CVD, which has been shown to be a reliable process to grow SiC epitaxial layers at rates above 100 µm/h on off-cut substrates, was combined with silane in-situ etching. A proper tuning of C/Si and Cl/Si ratios and the combination of different chlorinated precursors resulted in the homoepitaxial growth of 4H-SiC on Si-face substrates at high rates. Methyltrichlorosilane, added with silane, ethylene and hydrogen chloride were employed as precursors to perform epitaxial growths resulting in very low background doping concentration and high quality material, which could be employed for power devices structure on basal-plane-dislocation-free epitaxial layers.

Lotus flower is a symbol of purity in Asian cultures, when growing from muddy waters it stays clean and uncontaminated. The "self-cleaning" surface of lotus leaf is hydrophobic and rough, showing hierarchical micro- and nano-scale structures. Stimulated by “lotus effect”, the microreliefs of lotus leaf was mimicked using PVDF film and the nano-scale protrusions on the top of the microreliefs were implemented by the mixed solution of dimethyldichlorosilane (DDS) and methyltrichlorosilane (MTS). A lotus-leaf-like surface of the PVDF film was clearly observed by SEM. Elemental composition analysis by XPS revealed that the nanostructure materials of PVDF film were polymethylsiloxane and polydimethylsiloxane. The superhydrophobic property of the mimicked self-cleaning surface was validated by the water contact angle and sliding angle on the lotus-leaf-like PVDF film, which are 155°and 4°, respectively. In this case, water drops can easily move across the PVDF film surface, carrying dirt particles away, leaving no contamination.

Some aspects of the chloride-based CVD growth process have been investigated by using both the approach to add HCl to the standard precursors or/and by using the single molecule precursor methyltrichlorosilane (MTS). The efficiency of the process for different precursors, the growth rate stability and the effect that the Cl/Si-ratio has on the growth have been studied. MTS is showed to be the most efficient precursor; the growth can be hindered by to much chlorine in the gas mixture. The Cl/Si-ratio is also found to be a process parameter that affects the amount of incorporated nitrogen in the epilayers.

The chlorinated precursor methyltrichlorosilane (MTS), CH3SiCl3, has been used to grow epitaxial layers of 4H-SiC in a hot wall CVD reactor, with growth rates as high as 170 µm/h at 1600°C. Since MTS contains both silicon and carbon, with the C/Si ratio 1, MTS was used both as single precursor and mixed with silane or ethylene to study the effect of the C/Si and Cl/Si ratios on growth rate and doping of the epitaxial layers. When using only MTS as precursor, the growth rate showed a linear dependence on the MTS molar fraction in the reactor up to about 100 µm/h. The growth rate dropped for C/Si < 1 but was constant for C/Si > 1. Further, the growth rate decreased with lower Cl/Si ratio.

Three dimensional textile carbon fiber reinforced silicon carbide (3D textile C/SiC) composites with pyrolytic carbon interfacial layer were fabricated by chemical vapor infiltration. The microstructure and mechanical property of 3D textile C/SiC composites were investigated. A thin pyrolysis carbon layer (0.2 ± μm) was firstly deposited on the surface of carbon fiber as the interfacial layer with C3H6 at 850°C and 0.1 MPa. Methyltrichlorosilane (CH3SiCl3 or MTS) was used for the deposition of the silicon carbide matrix. The conditions used for SiC deposition were 1100°C, a hydrogen to MTS ratio of 10 and a pressure of 0.1 MPa. The density of the composites was 2.1 g cm-3. The flexural strength of the 3D textile C/SiC composites was 438 MPa. The 3D textile C/SiC composites with pyrolytic carbon interfacial layer exhibit good mechanical properties and a typical failure behavior involving fibers pull-out and brittle fracture of sub-bundle. The real part (ε′) and imaginary part (ε″) of the complex permittivity of the 3D-C/SiC composites are 51.53-52.44 and 41.18-42.08 respectively in the frequency range from 8.2 to 12.4 GHz. The 3D-C/SiC composites would be a good candidate for microwave absorber.

A BN interphase has been deposited by infiltration of a Hi-Nicalon fibre tow in a Low Pressure Chemical Vapour Deposition reactor using a boron nitride molecular precursor: the tris(dimethylamino)borane (TDMAB), an halogen-free precursor. This precursor prevents fibre and CVD apparatus from chemical damage. Then SiC/BN/SiC 1D mini-composites were produced by classical CVD of SiC from hydrogen and methyltrichlorosilane mixture. The interphase composition was characterised using FT-IR and XPS analyses and the presence of carbon in the BN has be related to surface pollution and not from carbon bounded to the coating. The tensile properties of the mini-composites were tested with unload-reload cycles and have shown very good mechanical properties corresponding to a high interfacial shear stress. The observations of the interphase using TEM reveal that it is made of an anisotropic turbostratic BN. The fibre/matrix debounding, which occurs during mechanical loading, was shown to be located within the BN interphase.

Natural pine wood was converted into biomorphic SiC-ceramics by CVI-R processing (chemical vapour infiltration - reaction). The wood samples were first pyrolyzed in inert atmosphere at temperatures of 800 C to yield biocarbon-derived template structures. Subsequently, the biocarbon preforms were infiltrated with silicon by isothermal CVI processing with MTS (methyltrichlorosilane) in excess of hydrogen at temperatures between 800 and 850 C, then converted into SiC-ceramic by annealing in inert atmosphere at temperatures between 1200-1600 C. During processing, the inherent open porous structure of the pine wood is retained down to the submicrometer level, yielding a highly porous SiC-ceramic with a unique microcellular morphology. (orig.)

A SiC coating was chemical vapour deposited (CVD) on a Cf/SiC composite with the ratio of H2 and methyltrichlorosilane (MTS) changed gradually from 6:1 to 12:1 during the CVD processing. Energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS) of the coating showed that the content of C decreased while Si increased continuously from the interface between coating and Cf/SiC substrate to the outside surface of coating. The obtained compositionally graded structure effectively reduced the generation of microcracks by releasing the mismatch of CTE of the coating and the composite.

The effects of deposition temperature on the growth characteristics of CVD SiC coatings were investigated. CVD SiC coatings were made by pyrolysis of methyltrichlorosilane (MTS) in hydrogen at a low pressure of 5kPa. The ratio of MTS to hydrogen was 1/12. The deposition temperatures were varied from 1373K to 1503K. Optical microscope and SEM were used to observe the surface morphology and microstructure of the coatings. XRD was used for characterization of the phase composition. Results indicated that the deposition rate and the surface roughness varied with deposition temperature. At 1373K, the deposited grains were mainly equiaxed with the crystallite size of 22 nm. However, when the deposition temperature was 1503K, the SiC grains were mainly showed faceted columnar structure with the crystallite size of 32 nm. Grain size increased with the increase of deposition temperature.

To obtain high performance ceramic matrix composites (CMCs), fiber coatings are often fabricated as the interphase between fiber and matrix. The SiC coating was synthesized at low temperature and reduced pressure in the present experiment. SiC was derived from a gaseous methyltrichlorosilane (MTS)/H2 precursor by chemical vapor infiltration (CVI). The thickness of the coating was inspected by SEM. The correlation between the coating thickness and the depositing conditions, i.e. the deposition temperature, the pressure, the deposition time per pulse and the pulse number were investigated. Based on these work, the C/SiC double-layer coating was fabricated.

Experimental Preforms made of PAN based carbon fibres were used in this work. (a) Preforms were impregnated with 10 vol. % distilled water solution of orthophosphoric acid. The samples were then dried in air at 150°C for 2 hours and treated at 600°C under an argon atmosphere. In order to understand the chemical phenomena occurring between H3PO4 and carbon, C/C composite materials (tablets) were carefully polished and treated with a H3PO4 solution. (b) Preforms were coated with SiC using a methyltrichlorosilane (MTS)/H2 mixture (950°C-3 kPaH2/MTS=0,7). Thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) were performed on the treated preforms under argon or dry air atmospheres in the 650-1000°C temperature range. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), Raman and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopies were carried on C/C composites polished surfaces.