Chemical treatment of silicon carbide

[Recycler]

I modified an employer's patented device,in order to treat bulk silicon carbide grit.It became crystal clear resembling clear silica grainsThe resultant was not analyzed.This was a low-temperature process.Is there any potential application for this type of process?

 

[Baluncore]

We do not know what the process was, or how you modified that process.
The patent number would help identify the process, especially if there is a US patent number.
What do you think the crystal clear grains might be, why ?

 

[Recycler]

We do not know what the process was, or how you modified that process.
The patent number would help identify the process, especially if there is a US patent number.
What do you think the crystal clear grains might be, why ?

I thought the clear grains were probably pure silicon dioxide,but they were not analyzed.I must step lightly here,because although my employers did not want the discovery at the time,it probably still belongs to them.I was curious if this result could be used to lay down very thin layers of material by transforming a thin layer of SiC.If it might be useful,I could contact the patent holders.Ethically,I don't know how much more I could disclose.The discovery was 40 years ago,but now I see many people working on hybrid thin layer materials.My discovery was definitely supported by another man's basic work.

 

[litup]

Your process must have gotten rid of the carbon somehow if the result was SiO2. If the original was 40 years old, wouldn't it be in public domain by now?

 

[Baluncore]

This thread will go nowhere unless we can get the patent number, or a description of the process and the modification that was employed.

A patent is published from the day it is granted, which is why I asked for the patent number. There is no advantage in keeping the number and date of grant secret. A significant modification might in itself have been an independent invention, but I expect any simple modification will have been published somewhere in the last 50 years so will not be novel, and so cannot be patented now.

I have an undocumented optical instrument here. I followed a patent number back to the 1951 registration in the USA and so now have a very good set of diagrams, with a clear explanation of how everything works and is connected. There are even some interesting extended features disclosed in the patent that are not included in this instrument.

Let's see that patent number, or we may as well abandon this thread.