Aluminum Nitridation in a Solar-Heated Vibrating Fluidized Bed Reactor

Abstract

A vibrating fluidized bed reactor was constructed and interfaced with the High-Flux Solar Furnace at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, CO. Various precursor mixtures of aluminum and aluminum nitride were heated for approximately 10 to 15 minutes using focused sunlight with an intensity as high as 2000 kW/m2 . Particles ranging in size from 2 μm to 10 μm were produced with the heating and fluidization process. X-ray diffraction and chemical composition analyses of the product indicate virtually complete conversion of aluminum to aluminum nitride for some precursor mixtures. High conversion was also achieved using multi-pass processing.