Diffusion of Si Vapor Infiltrating into Porous Graphite

Graphite`s thermal stability facilitates its widespread use as crucibles and molds in high temperatures processes. However, carbon atoms can be rather easily detached from pores and outer surfaces of the graphite due to the weak molecular force of the c axis of graphites. Detached carbon atoms are known to become a source of dust during fabrication processes, eventually lowering the effective yield of products. As an effort to reduce these problems of dust scattering, we have fabricated SiC composites by employing Si vapor infiltration method into the pores of graphites. In order to understand the diffusion process of the Si vapor infiltration, Si and C atomic percentages of fabricated SiC composites are carefully measured and the diffusion law is used to estimate the diffusion coefficient of Si vapor. A quadratic equation is obtained from the experimental results using the least square method. Diffusion coefficient of Si vapor is estimated using this quadratic equation. The result shows that the diffusion length obtained through the Si vapor infiltration method is about 10.7 times longer than that obtained using liquid Si and clearly demonstrates the usefulness of the present method.