Process for coating an object with silicon carbide

Claim 1

A process for coating a carbon or graphite object with silicon carbide by contacting it for a period of time with silicon liquid and vapor in a reaction chamber, said process comprising the steps of: (a) passing a stream comprising silicon-containing precursor material from the group consisting of silane halosilanes and halosilicons in gaseous phase below the decomposition temperature of said material and a co-reactant, carrier or diluent gas such as hydrogen through a hole within a high emissivity, thin, insulating septum into said reaction chamber; said reaction chamber being maintained at a temperature above the melting point of silicon, said temperature being at least 1400° C.; said thin septum having one face below the decomposition temperature of said gas and an opposite face exposed to the reaction chamber, whereby said precursor gas is decomposed to silicon liquid in said reaction chamber; (b) removing a steam of any decomposition gas and any unreacted precursor gas from said reaction chamber; and (c) contacting said object in said reaction chamber with said silicon liquid, and recovering said object from said reaction chamber after it has been coated with silicon carbide.