Abstract: Many researches indicated that improving the homogeneous mixing extent of the starting materials and adding appropriate additives were effective ways to improve the preparation of ultrafine SiC by carbothermal reduction reaction.Because rare earth elements can play an effective role in promoting a large number of chemical reactions,ultrafine SiC powder was prepared by carbonthermal reduction method with nano-sized SiO₂ and activated carbon as starting materials and with rare earth lanthanum as additive.Phase and particle size of the prepared powder were analyzed by XRD and ZetaPALS.Experiment results showed that the reaction temperature and particle size were both reduced by adding some rare earth lanthanum to the mixture of SiO₂ and activated carbon.

Key words: SiC, rare earths, carbothermal reduction reaction