Synthesis of β-SiAlON powder by carbothermal reduction-nitridation of zeolite

beta-SiAlON ceramics have high strength, high hardness, high oxidation and corrosion resistance. It has been fabricated by sintering of Si3N4-AlN-SiO2-Al2O3 powder mixture or beta-SiAlON powder. Many researchers have synthesized the beta-SiAlON powder by carbothermal reduction-nitridation Of SiO2-Al2O3 system or minerals, such as clay. Zeolite is composed of Si, At and 0, and has high specific surface area and very small pore. The purpose of this study is to fabricate beta-SiAlON powder by carbothermal reduction-nitridation of zeolite. Y-type zeolite and carbon powders were mixed in ethanol for 60min. After the slurry was dried, the mixed powder was fired at 1000 to 1450degreesC for 0 to 120min in 0.51/min N-2 flow, followed by heat-treatment at the temperature of 700degreesC for 120min in air in order to remove residual carbon. As a result, it was confirmed that the main phase of synthesized powder fired at 1450degreesC for 120min was beta-SiAlON and the powder was composed of ultra fine particles with 25m(2)/g of BET surface area and 70nm of mean particle size. Consequently, zeolite was concluded to be very useful raw material to synthesis very fine beta-SiAlON powder.