# Talk:Silicon nitride

I believe the alpha and beta stacking descriptions are reversed, since thats what we are learning in class.  I am changing it.Sirkha 17:43, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

preferred:
3 Si + 2N2  →  Si3N4
less preferred:

  
    
      
        
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          C
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    {\displaystyle \mathrm {3\ SiO_{2}+6\ C+2\ N_{2}\longrightarrow \ Si_{3}N_{4}+6\ CO} }
  
,
See Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style_(chemistry)
--Smokefoot (talk) 13:13, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

This review is transcluded from Talk:Silicon nitride/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.
Review in progress. Kbrose (talk) 14:23, 17 June 2009 (UTC)


### Note added by second GA reviewer
This GA review template was apparently created by Kbrose on 14:23, 17 June 2009 (UTC), but it was not transcluded onto the article's talkpage Talk:Silicon nitride, nor was the review recorded on Wikipedia:Good article nominations. As there does not appear to have been any progress since 17 June 2009, I'm continuing this review as second reviewer.Pyrotec (talk) 19:31, 12 August 2009 (UTC)


### Initial comments
After reading through this article a couple of times, it appears to be at or about the right level for a GA. Interestingly, some in-line citations have been added very recently; I was going to comment about citations (or lack of, in places), but I will leave that until later.
I now intended to go through the article section by section, but leaving the WP:lead until last.Pyrotec (talk) 19:59, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

History -
OK: seems to be verifiable as per in-line citations.
Synthesis -
The first few reactions are unreferenced, i.e no in-line citations.
OK it's fairly trivial, but reference 3 should say p.324, or perhaps pp. 324-325. Its p.324 on the google-books link provided.
I deduce from the "lattice constants" sentence that semiconductor substrates are silicon, perhaps I'm wrong; but why should I need to deduce this - shouldn't the article make this clear?
This whole section is almost a string of one-sentence paragraphs; and the last two stick out like a "sore thumb".
I'm not convinced that the one-sentence paragraph on meteorites & mineral belongs in Sythesis; but where else to put it, History perhaps?
Processing -  Done. Pyrotec (talk) 21:17, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
I'm not sure I like or even understand "Silicon nitride is difficult to produce as a bulk material because it cannot be heated over 1850 °C due to its dissociation and therefore is difficult to sinter by conventional hot press sintering techniques". I suggest that the first part to expanded to ...dissociated to (silica & nitrogen?). Presummably, sintering is enhanced by going to higher temperatures than 1850 °C, but again this is not made clear in the current paragraph?
Thank you. All comments are very valid and have been addressed. Most nitrides, including this one, dissociate upon heating into individual components (heating is always conducted in pure nitrogen, otherwise things get much worse, thus no silica). I guess it is because of the stability of N2 molecule. Sintering is achieved using binders and pulsed, transient techniques, not by temperature. Materialscientist (talk) 01:52, 13 August 2009 (UTC)
....to be continued. Pyrotec (talk) 22:18, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

Crystal structure and properties -
Appears to be compliant
Applications -
Appears to be compliant
Applications -


### Overall summary
GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria

Is it reasonably well written?
A. Prose quality: 

B. MoS compliance: 

Is it factually accurate and verifiable?
A. References to sources: 

B. Citation of reliable sources where necessary: 

C. No original research: 

Is it broad in its coverage?
A. Major aspects: 

B. Focused: 

Is it neutral?
Fair representation without bias: 

Is it stable?
No edit wars, etc: 

Does it contain images to illustrate the topic?
A. Images are copyright tagged, and non-free images have fair use rationales: 

B. Images are provided where possible and appropriate, with suitable captions: 

Overall:
Pass or Fail: 

Congratulations on the quality of the article. I'm awarding GA status. Pyrotec (talk) 21:17, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

I am amazed no one included or inquired about the dielectric constant of this material, which is one of the key reasons for its use in semiconductor devices.  Many other electrical parameters also seem to be missing.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.229.112.98 (talk) 21:56, 11 March 2010 (UTC) 

Please help us adding that information. I thought it is used in semiconductors industry because of compatibility with silicon, not because of dielectric constant, isn't it? Materialscientist (talk) 23:46, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

What is color of pure silicon nitride? It (probably) has a band gap of 5,1 eV, therefore it should be transparent and colorless. Many pictures shows metallic-looking substance named as silicon nitride. It is a "semimetalloidal" substance such as diamond, with very high hardness and melting point, but wide band gap and poor electrical conductivity.
95.49.56.52 (talk) 19:57, 2 November 2013 (UTC)
Same question. On the webminaral.com/... site it is said that as meteorite mineral it can be colourless and transparent (in the visible spectrum) (just like silicon carbide aka moissanite) but this may only apply to the microscopic grains that where found. I couldn't find any examples of high quality single crystalline samples that where in the 1mm range in all three dimensions. I mainly found A) sintered material (~6mm diameter balls) which are very likely grey/black due to faults/inclusions/... and B) very thin high quality films like the in an silicon frame suspended one in this paper. This paper says that there's a damping of 2e-4 on 50nm which equates to a quite significant reduction to ~67% on only 0.1mm. Inconsistently the filmetronics site says that it is near transparent at 632.8nm (extinction coefficient 0 ??)
--Login Mechadense (talk) 11:56, 12 December 2015 (UTC)
As is the case with many technical ceramics, the only way they can be macroscopically transparent is if the grain size is very large (eg single crystals) or very small. Also any left porosity will scatter light. These are the reasons why sintered silicon nitride is opaque (usually dark grey to light grey). Ezrado (talk) 17:57, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

A refractive index is listed - but the wavelength at which this refractive index applies seems to be missing. Given that the refractive index varies from roughly 2.08 to 2.0 in the visible spectrum it seems excessive that the refractive index listed presently is given with a precision of 3 decimal numbers. Either reduce precision or (preferably) indicate wavelength. Source: http://refractiveindex.info/?group=CRYSTALS&material=Si3N4.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.38.90.48 (talk) 18:16, 27 February 2014 (UTC) 

Clicking on the reference will bring you to the wavelength also. Refractive index is traditionally specified for the yellow doublet sodium D line (589 nm). Materialscientist (talk) 00:05, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

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This figure from the article shows tensile strength vs. temperature.
The article should explain the figure, or the figure should have an explanatory caption. From the figure I find there are two versions of silicon nitride (1980 and 1997). 
But the article describes 3 versions (α, β and γ phases).
I would guess that some advance was made to increase the strength but I could not find backing information in the history section or the properties section.

Please explain the difference between 1980 and 1997 versions of Si3N4
Please explain what happened prior to 1980
Please relate the figure to α, β and γ phases
  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ericjster (talk • contribs) 23:52, 17 December 2018 (UTC) 

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