Thermodynamic stability of solid and fluid phases in the Si₃B₃N₇ system

Alexander Hannemann (1) , Christian Schoen (2) , Martin Jansen (2)

1 FIZ Karlsruhe - Leibniz-Institut für Informationsinfrastruktur
2 Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung

We investigate the thermodynamic properties of the ceramic material Si₃B₃N₇ which has so far only been synthesized as an amorphous compound. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate the stability of both solid and fluid phases of Si₃B₃N₇, in order to gain insight into the proper synthetic conditions needed to generate the stable amorphous and crystalline phases of this compound. We study the ternary liquid-gas region of the phase diagram at temperatures above the theoretical glass transition in this system, and construct an approximate "metastable" phase diagram of Si₃B₃N₇. In addition we study the stability of the amorphous and crystalline phases in the solid state against the decomposition into the binary phases h-BN and β-Si₃N₄ as function of the size of the crystallites involved, and the stability of the melt against evolution of nitrogen as function of nitrogen pressure.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

Alexander Hannemann, Christian Schoen, Martin Jansen. Thermodynamic stability of solid and fluid phases in the Si₃B₃N₇ system. Philosophical Magazine, 2009, 88 (07), pp.1037-1057. ⟨10.1080/14786430802047084⟩. ⟨hal-00513885⟩