Aluminum Nitride Formation From Aluminum Oxide/Phenol Resin Solid-Gel Mixture By Carbothermal Reduction Nitridation Method

Abstract

Hexagonal and cubic crystalline aluminum nitride (AlN) particles were successfully synthesized using phenol resin and alpha aluminum oxide ([α]-Al[2]O[3]) as precursors through new solid-gel mixture and carbothermal reduction nitridaton (CRN) process with molar ratio of C/Al[2]O[3] = 3. The effect of reaction temperature on the decomposition of phenol resin and synthesis of hexagonal and cubic AlN were investigated and the reaction mechanism was also discussed. The results showed that [α]-Al[2]O[3] powder in homogeneous solid-gel precursor was easily nitrided to yield AlN powder during the carbothermal reduction nitridation process. The reaction temperature needed for a complete conversion for the precursor was about 1700°C, which much lower than that when using [α]-Al[2]O[3] and carbon black as starting materials. To our knowledge, phenol resin is the first time to be used for synthesizing AlN powder via carbothermal reduction and nitridation method, which would be an efficient, economical, cheap assistant reagent for large scale synthesis of AlN powder.