Effects of surface oxide species and contents on SiC slurry viscosity

The disadvantageous effects of colloidal SiO2 layer and micro-content of metal oxide adsorbed on SiC powder surface on SiC slurry stable dispersion were studied, and the novel method to avoid this disadvantage was proposed. By acidwashing, on the one hand, because the maximum Zeta potential of SiC powder increases to 72.49 mV with the decreasing content of metal oxide adsorbed on the SiC powder surface, the repulsion force between SiC powders that dispersed in slurry is enhanced, thus the SiC powder can be fully dispersed in slurry. On the other hand, after HF acidwashing, with the OH^- group adsorbed on SiC powder surface destroyed and replaced by the Fion, the hydrogen bond adsorbed on the OHgroup is also destroyed. Therefore, the surface property of the SiC powder is changed from hydrophilic to hydrophobic; H2O that adsorbed on SiC powder surface is released and can flow freely, and it actually increases the content of the effective flow phase in the slurry. These changes of SiC powder surface property can be proved by XPS and FTIR analysis. Finally, the viscosity of SiC slurry is decreased greatly, and when the viscosity of the slurry is lower than 1 Pa·s, the solid volume fraction of SiC powder in the slurry is maximized to 61.5 vol.%.