Synthesis of Al4SiC4 powders from kaolin grog, aluminum and carbon black by carbothermal reaction

Abstract

In this paper, the synthesis of Al4SiC4 used as natural oxide materials by carbothermal reduction was investigated in order to explore the synthesis route with low costs. The samples were calcined by using kaolin grog, aluminum and carbon black as raw materials with the selected proportion at the temperature from 1500 to 1800 ° C for 2 hours under flow argon atmosphere. The phase composition of reaction products were determined by X-ray diffraction. The microstructure and elemental composition of different phases were observed and identified by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. The mechanism of reaction processing was discussed. The results show that Al4SiC4 powders composed of hexagonal plate-like particulates with various sizes and the thickness of less than 20 μm are obtained when the temperature reaches 1800 °C.