One-pot synthesis of silicon carbide from a non-formalin iminosilane-resorcinol composite

Abstract

This work reports an efficient one-pot synthetic approach for the production of industrially essential silicon carbide (SiC) derived from the carbothermal reduction of an iminosilane resorcinol (ISR) composite. In this study, the utilization of activated carbon (AC) as the carbon source and well-known “resorcinol-formalin” chemistry to produce SiC are circumvented as the production of AC involves CO₂ emissions and is energy intensive in the former process and due to the hazards associated with formaldehyde in the latter process. The ISR composite formation primarily occurred due to the presence of the imine functionality resulting from the reaction between aminosilane (3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane) and acetone, followed by the reaction with resorcinol. The formation of SiC was confirmed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The synthesized SiC exhibits high crystallinity with a crystallite size of 15.4 nm and a band gap of 2.36 eV.