In situ synthesis of ZrC/SiC nanocomposite via carbothermic reduction of binary xerogel

Nano-sized powder composite of zirconium carbide/silicon carbide (ZrC/SiC) was successfully synthesized via a combined sol gel/carbothermic reduction techniques. A sol containing zirconium from zirconium n-propoxide (ZTP) as well as a sol containing silicon from tetraethoxy orthosilicate (TEOS) was separately prepared. The two sols were mixed together for preparing a binary gel containing both. The produced binary xerogel was subjected to a carbothermic reduction reaction at temperature of 1500 °C for 3 h. The synthesized powder was characterized from compositional as well as morphological point of views using XRD, FT-IR, XPS, SEM and TEM analysis. The XRD data revealed that the powder composite consisted of pure ZrC/SiC was produced. This data was confirmed by presence of main planes (0 1 0) and (0 1 1) for ZrC and (1 1 1) plane for SiC, respectively. Moreover, XPS with help of FT-IR data show obviously that the ZrC/SiC composite was formed with traces of zirconium oxycarbide. Furthermore, SEM and TEM images confirmed that cubic nano-sized ZrC particles of size ∼40 nm and hexagonal β-SiC nano-rods of size ∼50 nm were obtained. In addition, the thermogravimetric analysis of the produced nanocomposite revealed the high homogeneity in the particle size distribution. Based on the obtained data, a mechanism of nanocomposite formation was postulated.