Direct determination of carbothermal reduction temperature for preparing silicon carbide from the vacuum furnace thermobarogram

In this study, we combined the traditional vacuum furnace with a sur-high accuracy vacuum gauge for measuring the change of gas pressure in the furnace as a function of temperature. The modified vacuum furnace was used for preparing silicon carbide (SiC), and the recorded data named thermobarogram were applied to detect the reaction temperature for synthesis of SiC, which, in particular, changes as catalysts are used. The results showed that the carbothermal reduction temperature for synthesizing SiC, under dynamic vacuum condition, would decrease to 850 °C when the mole ratio of Fe/Si=0.06 was employed in the SiC precursor.