Liquid‐phase‐induced synthesis of SiC rods by microwave heating

β-SiC rods were synthesized by microwave heating using activated carbon, boric acid, and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as raw materials. A sol–gel method was carried out to coat silicon dioxide (SiO2) on activated carbon and mix with boric acid. The mixed raw powders were pre-formed by uniaxial pressing into cylindrical pellets in the dimension of Φ 30 × 25 mm. The heating temperature was 1100 °C with different holding times of 10 min, 20 min, and 30 min, respectively. Techniques of XRD, SEM, DSC-TG were carried out to characterize samples. It was found that β-SiC rods can be prepared by microwave heating with the presence of liquid phase. Hybrid microwave thermal effects give rise to complicated physical and chemical reactions at high temperature. Microwave plasma and microwave coupling effects occurred due to the gases and liquid during the reaction. The growth of SiC is realized by the diffusion–precipitation mechanism. SiC rods are well formed under sufficient atomic diffusion on the surface and within the sample by self-coupling. Perfect homogeneous growth occurs with no stack fault appearing within prepared SiC rods.