Method for the preparation of silicon carbide whiskers

摘要

In place of the conventional silicon source materials used in the prior art method for the preparation of silicon carbide whiskers, the inventive method utilizes a hydrolysis product of a chlorosilane compound RaSiCl4-a or a chlorodisilane compound RbSi2Cl6-b, in which R is a hydrogen atom or a monovalent hydrocarbon group, a is zero to 3 and b is 1 to 5, as the silicon source which is intimately mixed with a powder of carbon and the mixture is heated at 1400 DEG to 1700 DEG C. to give silicon carbide whiskers in a high conversion. Alternatively, the hydrolysis of the chloro(di)silane compound is performed in an aqueous medium in which a powder of carbon is dispersed in advance so that the hydrolysis product as formed is already a mixture with the carbon powder.