Form 15 (3/31/86) NSF PROJECT IST-850 5411 EXPERIMENTS ON THE COGNITIVE ASPECTS OF INFORMATION SEEKING AND INFORMATION RETRIEVING USER QUESTIONS FOR ONLINE SEARCHES QUESTION NUMBER: 012 A1. BRIEF TITLE: Chemistry of Silicon Nitride and Silicon Carbide A2. QUESTION STATEMENT: I would like to find out what is known about the chemical reactivity of Silicon Carbide and Silicon Nitride ceramic powders at low temperatures (room temperature)-especially in aqueous environments-both liquid water and water vapor. I want to know what the surface chemistry of these materials is (what surface groups are present and how they interact with the environment) and the physical chemistry (colloidal behavior) of ultrafine ceramic powders made from these powders. Important studies would include surface titration (also called titration of surface groups or potentiometric). zeta potential (determination of surface potential), flocculation and/or sedimentation behavior, viscosity (viscometry) adsorption, FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared) or traditional IR (infrared) spectroscopy, XPS/ESCA/AUGER Spectroscopies. Also important would be studies characterizing the reaction rate of bulk Silicon Carbide and Silicon Nitride with water-for instance studies determining the reaction rate (kinetics) or decomposition products at room temperature. TYPE OF SEARCH REQUESTED B. A precise or a broad search: Broad C. Research application: Graduate study-Chemical engineering D. Retrieve articles in English only or any language: Any language-if abstract in English E. Years to be searched: No limits F. DIALOG databases suggested: Electronics/semiconductor, Chemistry, Materials (science), Ceramics, Physical sciences, Physics Š