Author(s)

Désiré M. K. Abro¹, Pierre Dablé², Fernando Cortez-Salazar³, Véronique Amstutz³, Hubert Girault³

¹Laboratoire de Chimie Physique, Université F. H. B. Cocody, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
²Laboratoire de Thermodynamique de Traitement et Sciences des Surfaces et Interfaces, Institut National Polytechnique F.H.B., Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire.
³Laboratoire d’Electrochimie Physique et Analytique, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Sion, Suisse.

Silicon and Silicon carbide particles have been investigated by the mean of infrared (IR) spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to establish their surface states. The results of this research are based on the estimation of the area under the high resolution peaks by isosceles triangles. This approach leads to the repartition of the particles surfaces in term of atomic percentage and of type of bonds. The surface of silicon particles is divided up into 54.85% of Si-O bonds and 36.85% of Si-Si bonds. The remaining surface is constituted of zeolite, the raw material used to produce the silicon particles. The surface of silicon carbide particles consists of 50.44% of Si-C bonds, 24.01% of Si-O bonds and 25.55% of graphite. 10.01% of the graphite is derived from the oxidation of Si-C bonds while 11.48% is due to contamination. The zeta potential evolution versus pH confirms the distribution of chemical groups found.

IR and XPS Sprectra, Si, SiC, Surface State, Zeta Potential

Abro, D.M.K., Dablé, P., Cortez-Salazar, F., Amstutz, V. and Girault, H. (2016) Characterization of Surface State of Inert Particles: Case of Si and SiC. Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering, 4, 62-72. doi: 10.4236/jmmce.2016.41007.