Abstract
Bagasse is obtained from squeezing sugar cane. In sugar factories, bagasse is burned as fuel for boiler machines. Therefore, large amounts of bagasse ash remain every year. Bagasse ash can be considered as a ceramics material because it mainly contains silica component (SiO2). As the carbonized bagasse has electrical conductivity, the composites using the carbonized bagasse and bagasse ash were applied for the spark plasma sintering (SPS). From X-ray diffraction of composite material of composition ratio of 1(bagasse ash) : 3(carbonized bagasse), the synthesis of β-SiC was recognized over the firing temperature of 1673 K. The laminated structure by 3 and 5 layers which means bagasse ash was sandwiched by carbonized bagasse is extremely effective for promoting the synthesis of β-SiC. The morphology of crystalline of β-SiC was observed by SEM. The qualitative chemical analysis and quantitative analysis of β-SiC were performed by X-ray diffraction and EDX. And purity of the SiO2 in bagasse ash could be heightened by hydrochloric acid treatment. As the result, the formation and crystallization of β-SiC are accomplished more than the case of raw bagasse ash. As a conclusion, the composite used bagasse ash and carbonized bagasse could fabricate to synthesize β-SiC by SPS.
