Silicon aluminum oxynitride, commonly called SiAlON, is an industrial ceramic used in cutting tools, dies, chemical ware, containers for molten metals, bearings, gun barrels and a variety of engine components such as gas turbines, diesels, etc. It has high toughness, high strength, reasonable hardness and good oxidation resistance and thermal shock resistance. It is produced through the insitu reaction of its constituents Si3N4, AlN and Al203, plus sintering aids. The solid state reaction can take up to hours to produce a solid block of SiAlON which is then ground into powder. The properties and reliability of the SiAlON are affected by the starting materials, their particle size and purity as well as processing temperature and time. The purpose of this Small Business Innovation Phase I it to produce a high purity and closely controlled particle size SiAlON powder to be used in the production of high strength components, eliminating the need for the insitu reaction process. The PIs plan to develop an inductively coupled plasma synthesis process for the direct production of a high purity SiALON powder. Screening reactions will be performed to select the optimum plasma frequency and precursor to product SiALON powder. The synthesis process will be optimized with the produce SiAlON powder consolidated for property valuation and comparison to insitu produced SiAlON. A model will be developed for the synthesis reaction to directly produce SiAlON powder.
