Characterization of β‐Silicon Carbide by Silicon‐29 Solid‐State NMR, Transmission Electron Microscopy, and Powder X‐ray Diffraction

Abstract

Increased interest in ceramic materials, particularly for high‐temperature, high‐stress applications, has created the need for rapid and reliable analytical techniques to monitor microcrystalline structure of commercial ceramic powders. A comparative evaluation of commercially available β‐SiC powders is undertaken to analyze the potential of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in the characterization of β‐SiC powder. NMR provides an acceptable, rapid method for characterization of powders both during powder manufacturing as well as for powder analyses priror to sintering studies. The results of transmission electron microscopy and X‐ray diffraction are correlated with the NMR spectra to explain some newly observed features in the NMR spectra of β‐SiC powders and to illustrate the sensitivity of NMR to microcrystalline disorder.