Oxidation behaviour of silicon carbide - A review

Silicon Carbide as an inorganic material possesses properties like high thermochemical stability, high hardness and fracture toughness, low thermal expansion coefficient etc. It is therefore, widely used in the making of refractory, semiconductor devices, combustion engines, etc. Being a nonoxide, it has a tendency to get oxidized at elevated temperature under oxidizing atmosphere. Oxidation of silicon carbide can be either active or passive. Active oxidation reduces the strength of the samples whereas passive oxidation leads to the formation of coherent silica layer over silicon carbide surface, thereby improving its performances in several applications. Being an interesting area of research, numerous works have been reported on the oxidation behaviour of silicon carbide. In this paper a comprehensive review has been made on different works related with the oxidation behaviour of silicon carbide. © 2014 Advanced Study Center Co. Ltd.