Synthesis of Silicon Carbide Fiber as semiconductor substrate for Betavoltaic cell

Silicon carbide (SiC) has excellent properties to be utilized as a semiconductor substrate because this material with high thermal conductivity and has stable properties against mechanical and chemical and also resistant to radiation. In this research, SiC fiber synthesis of polycarbosilane by electrospinning method with N, N - dimethylformamide (DMF) and toluene solvent was used. This electrospinning method is excellent for making fibers with controlled diameters and less than 10 μm. Some parameters that affect the fiber results will be studied that is by varying the voltage and temperature in the pyrolysis process. SiC fibers obtained were characterized by Microscop optic, FTIR, XRD and SEM. The SiC fibers were made into composites that poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) used as matrix. The obtained composites were then tested for electrical conductivity and dielectric constant using LCR meter in order to show the ability as a semiconductor to be applied on betavoltaic cell. The Results obtained from FTIR, XRD and SEM-EDS shows SiC fibers have been successfully synthesized by this method. SiC fiber morphology is known of changes fiber diameter and fiber uniformity. The average fiber diameter as-received from electrospinning process were decrease with increasing the applied voltage during electrospining process. The average fiber diameter result from applied voltage for 10 kV were at 10.4 μm. The average diameter of fiber after pyrolisys with temperature variation at 1200, 1300 and 1400 °C has a tendency to become smaller with an increase of temperature in all applied voltage. The SiC fiber produced in all variations of voltage and pyrolysis temperature was a semiconductor material. The electrical conductivity value at frequencies 1 to 1000 Hz, the area of electrical conductivity values ranges from 8 × 10^-6 to 7 × 10 ×⁶.