An Anomalous Reaction of Silicon Oxide and Aluminum via Ball Milling
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Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2007
Type of Work
Department
Physics
Program
Bachelor's Degree
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Collection may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. To obtain information or permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Goucher Special Collections & Archives at 410-337-6347 or email archives@goucher.edu.
Abstract
Previous studies have shown that the ball milling technique, which mechanically heats and releases energy, often
causes a displacement reaction between various metals and metal oxides. Sometimes ball milling causes a selfpropagating
heat synthesis reaction (SHS) to occur. This study was undertaken to see whether the ball milling
technique could provide a method to extract pure silicon from silicon oxide. Since silicon oxide and aluminum are
readily available materials, the ball milling process would be an easy and cost-efficient way to produce silicon. The
parameters tested in this study included varying the amount of aluminum, total powder mass, number of balls
(kinetic energy), and milling atmosphere. Parameters also tested were additions of acetone and alcohol. X-ray
diffraction was used to determine what elements and compounds were present before and after ignition. This study
discovered that when silicon oxide and aluminum are milled SHS does not occur despite the reaction being highly
exothermic. It does not appear possible to slow down the localized reactions to the point where SHS can occur.