Nitridation of si using mechano-fusion method

Full text: It has been found that silicon nitride (Si3N4) can be formed by ball milling of Si in ammonia. However only small fraction of Si can be transformed into 1 Si3N4. The major milling effect is the formation of poly/nanocrystalline silicon. At this stage of research it is difficult to answer the question why ball milling causes only limited formation of Si3N4. It is due to little understanding of 1 processes occurring during milling. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to study nitridation reaction during milling of Si in ammonia. In particular the 1 effect of milling conditions such as milling energies, atmosphere and a form of starting material was studied. The micro/macrostructural development during milling and subsequent annealing was studied using x-ray diffractometry, thermal analysis, elemental analysis measurement. It was found that the transformed fraction of Si3N4 compound is strongly dependent on milling energies and milling atmosphere