Calculating the penetration depth of reaction in chemical gas-phase deposition of boron nitride within porous bodies

Abstract

The thermodynamic calculations conducted using the TERRA software package for the B–Cl–N–H system revealed that the inclusion of hydrogen into the B–Cl system significantly diminishes the thermodynamic stability of BCl3 with the possibility of boron formation in the condensed phase. On the other hand, the introduction of ammonia, which includes hydrogen, results in the synthesis of boron nitride across a broad temperature spectrum. The analysis of kinetic relationships uncovered three distinct regions in the boron nitride deposition process: K – kinetic region (up to 1400 K), D – diffusion region (above 1800 K) and T – transition region. The activation energy for the kinetic region was calculated as Ea = 134 kJ/mol. Within the temperature range of 1023–1123 K, linear dependences were observed. The computation of the penetration depth for the boron nitride deposition process assumed a gas mixture of boron trichloride, ammonia, and argon (BCl3 + NH3 + 30Ar). The results indicated that boron trichloride governs the extent of penetration. The depths of penetration for the chemical vapor infiltration boron nitride (CVI-BN) process, conducted at 0.1 kPa within the temperature range of 1100–1400 K, were determined for pore diameters of 1, 10, 30, 100, 200 and 300 µm. When porosimetry data for a specific preform is available, the acquired penetration depth relationships for the CVI-BN process under specific parameters and process temperatures facilitate the estimation of essential parameters for interphase formation using pyrolytic boron nitride.