Synthesis of α-Si3N4 whiskers or equiaxed particles from amorphous Si3N4 powders

Silicon nitride (Si 3 N 4 ) particles with different morphologies have been used in many fields. In this work, α-Si 3 N 4 whiskers and granular particles with high-phase purity were successfully tailored by the controllable crystallisation process of amorphous Si 3 N 4 powders under different N 2 pressure. Impressively, α-Si 3 N 4 whiskers were prepared by simply heat treating amorphous Si 3 N 4 powders at 1550 °C for 2 h under the low N 2 pressure of 0.2 MPa, whereas equiaxed α-Si 3 N 4 particles with uniform size of ~280 nm were obtained under an elevated N 2 pressure of 2.0 MPa. With the evaluated N 2 pressures and temperatures, large scale α-Si 3 N 4 whiskers or equiaxed α-Si 3 N 4 particles could be produced. The growth mechanisms of the α-Si 3 N 4 particles with distinct morphologies were rationally proposed, and these consist of two main growth processes. First, amorphous Si 3 N 4 powders decomposed into Si(g) and N 2 (g) under high-temperature treatment. Subsequently, N 2 (g) dominated the recombination of the evaporated chemical with the Si 3 N 4 molecule. The initial N 2 concentration, which plays a key role in tailoring the shape and size of products, was controlled by the N 2 pressure.