Analysis of the Rapid Carbothermal Reduction Synthesis of Ultra-Fine Silicon Carbide Powders

A nondimensionalized and scaled nonisothermal model is developed for the "rapid carbothermal reduction" synthesis of sub-micron silicon carbide particles in an aerosol flow reactor to determine the minimum parametric representation of the system. Seven dimensionless groups are needed to completely describe the system, and these dimensionless groups are varied to determine the effects of the furnace wall temperature, inlet carbon particle size, carrier gas flow rate, and solids feed rate on final product quality. Analysis shows that radiation dominates the heating process, sintering dominates the primary particle growth, and conversion is controlled with precursor carbon particle size, wall temperature, and carrier gas flow rate.