Oxidation of surface‐treated SiC platelets studied by XPS and bremsstrahlung‐excited AES

X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and bremsstrahlung‐excited Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) were used to study the oxidation of treated silicon carbide platelets heated in air at 700, 800 and 850°C. A previous study had shown that when the as‐received silicon carbide platelets were heated in air, boron segregated to the surface during the formation of the oxide scale. Boron is present as a minor impurity in the silicon carbide platelets. The oxidation was found to be non‐linear and non‐parabolic. In the present study, the silicon carbide platelets were treated by heating in air at 800°C and then etching off the surface oxide scale with 30% HF. This procedure removed the boron impurity. The oxidation of these treated silicon carbide platelets was found to be linear in the temperature range 700–850°C. The activation energy was measured to be 63 ± 12 kJ mol −1 (15 ± 3 kcal mol −1 ). These results are in very good agreement with previous results for SiC whiskers. No boron was detected during the oxidation of the treated SiC platelets.