The present work involves the study of Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) of silicon carbide from the methyltrichlorosilane (MTS) - hydrogen system. A computer program, SOLGASMIX has been employed to calculate the equilibrium compositions of the gaseous and condensed phases in the MTS - H2 system. The results indicate the range of parameters such as temperature, pressure and species concentrations, required to deposit the single phase Sic under thermodynamic equilibrium conditions. A mathematical model for describing the transport phenomena and the rate of deposition of Sic onto a thin rod in a vertically-oriented hot-walled CVD reactor has been developed. Exper iments were conducted using the same operating conditions as those used in the model in order to validate the mathematical predictions. The predicted rates of deposition were found to be in good agreement with those obtained experimentally. The model can be used to study the effects of various operating parameters on the rate of Sic deposition on a fiber.
Preliminary studies of bacterial attachment to MoSp (molybdenite) have indicated a low correlation between dislocation density in the (0001) basal plane and the density of attached microbes. In the present investigation, poly- crystalline thin sections of CuFeSp (chalcopyrite) have been ion-etched or carefully comminuted to electron transparency and observed in the transmission electron microscope. The thinned test sections were then immersed in a culture solution in which bacterial attachment occurred. The attached bacteria were biologically stained in a uranyl acetate solution and the entire thin CuFeSp sections or tiny particles containing thin, electron transparent edges with bacteria attached were observed in the transmission electron microscope, allowing the coincidence of bacteria and their density to be directly observed in relation to lattice dislocations and crystallographic orientations of the exposed surfaces. This technique has the advantage of exposing crystallographic orientations where dislocation lines intersect the free mineral surface, and the emergence sites of dislocations could in principle be directly investigated as a possible preferential attachment site for bacteria. Bacteria morphologies were also extensively observed in the scanning electron microscope. The implications of the results are that although a strong correlation between dislocation density and distribution and bacterial attachment, density, and distribution has not been established, systematic multiplication of dislocation densities in crystalline mineral particles to be leached could enhance leaching rates by increasing the reaction rates as well as the density of attached bacteria at crystalline, metal-rich phases. Techniques for dislocation production in mineral and ore bodies and the particular implications in chalcopyrite leaching are discussed in relation to in-situ leaching where comminution is attained by explosives and the generation of strong shock waves in an ore body. The present study demonstrates the use of microanalytical and microscopic techniques in the investigation of fundamental microstructural phenomena in hydrometallurgical processes.
Chemical Vapor Deposition of Silicon Carbide by the MTS/Hydrogen System