Laser pyrolysis is a very suitable gas-phase process for the synthesis of a wide range of
nanoparticles at laboratory scale. The principle of the method is based on the decomposition of
gaseous or liquid reactants by a high power CO2 laser followed by a quenching effect. The literature
reports the possibility to produce carbides, nitrides, oxides, metals and composites nanoparticles by
this process. This paper reports a study of the effect of the laser intensity (using an innovative
optical system) and of the gas flow rates on the characteristics (size and structure) of silicon carbide
(SiC) nanoparticles produced at pilot scale (up to 1.13 kg/h) by using a mixture of silane (SiH4) and
acetylene (C2H2). It has been shown that the decrease of the gas flow rate favors the increase of the
mean grain size of the particles and that the increase of the laser intensity seems to provoke an
increase of the mean crystal size and/or crystal number.
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