Combustion Synthesis of β-SiAlON Whiskers

In this paper, b-SiAlON whiskers were synthesized by combustion of silicon and aluminium powders with SiO2 and Y2O3 as additives and a-Si3N4 or b-SiAlON powders as diluents. SEM observation of the products showed that the crystals with an aspect ratio higher that 5, which could be assigned to almost pure and well crystallized b-SiAlON. The influence of the amount of NH4F additive, the type of diluent on the phase formation and on the morphology of products was investigated.