Synthesis and characterization of high surface area silicon carbide by dynamic vacuum carbothermal reduction

Silicon carbide (SiC) precursor was obtained by sol–gel used tetraethoxysilane as silicon source and saccharose as carbon source, and then the precursor was used to prepare SiC by carbothermal reduction under dynamic vacuum condition. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, and low-temperature nitrogen adsorption– desorption measurement. The results showed that the carbothermal temperature for synthesizing SiC needed to be at 1,100 C under dynamic vacuum. At this temperature, the obtained sample is composed of agglomerated regular grains with size ranging from 20 to 40 nm and has a high surface area of 167 m2/g and the main pore size center at 5.3 nm.