The present invention relates to a method for producing a metal nitride by igniting a raw material powder containing a metal powder filled in a reaction vessel under a nitrogen atmosphere and propagating nitriding combustion heat generated by a nitriding reaction of the metal to the whole raw material powder, the method including forming a heat insulating layer made of a material having nitrogen permeability and inert to the nitriding reaction on an upper surface of a layer made of the raw material powder. According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a method for reducing the amount of unreacted metal powder when producing a metal nitride by a combustion synthesis method.

To produce aluminum nitride in the form of a lump that can easily be broken down by light pulverization, which could not be obtained by a conventional combustion synthesis method. A method for producing aluminum nitride powder by a combustion synthesis method using a metallic aluminum powder, characterized in that a powder mixture in which an aluminum nitride powder having an average primary particle diameter of 3 μm or less as a diluent is mixed with a metallic aluminum powder in a ratio of 150 to 400 parts by mass of the aluminum nitride powder relative to 100 parts by mass of the metallic aluminum powder, is ignited to combust in a nitrogen atmosphere.

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing aluminum nitride and aluminum nitride prepared by the same. Pure aluminum powder having a median particle size (D50) of 1.52 μm was heated to a temperature in a range of 595° C.˜900° C. in a nitrogen containing atmosphere comprising nitrogen and argon gases, at atmospheric pressure for one hour to obtain aluminum nitride with a degree of nitridation exceeding 93%. According to the present invention aluminum nitride may be produced with high yield using a simple and inexpensive one-step heating method in a relatively short period of time.

A method and apparatus for producing AlN whiskers includes reduced incorporation of metal particles, an AlN whisker body, AlN whiskers, a resin molded body, and a method for producing the resin molded body. The method for producing AlN whiskers includes heating an Al-containing material in a material accommodation unit to thereby generate Al gas; and introducing the Al gas into a reaction chamber through a communication portion while introducing nitrogen gas into the reaction chamber through a gas inlet port, to thereby grow AlN whiskers on the surface of an Al.sub.2O.sub.3 substrate placed in the reaction chamber.

A method and apparatus for producing AlN whiskers includes reduced incorporation of metal particles, an AlN whisker body, AlN whiskers, a resin molded body, and a method for producing the resin molded body. The method for producing AlN whiskers includes heating an Al-containing material in a material accommodation unit to thereby generate Al gas; and introducing the Al gas into a reaction chamber through a communication portion while introducing nitrogen gas into the reaction chamber through a gas inlet port, to thereby grow AlN whiskers on the surface of an Al.sub.2O.sub.3 substrate placed in the reaction chamber.

An aluminum nitride plate satisfies a “c1>97.5%”, a “c2>97.0%”, a “w1<2.5 degrees”, and a “w1/w2<0.995” where c1 is a c-plane degree of orientation that is defined as a ratio of a diffraction intensity of (002) plane when a surface layer of the aluminum nitride plate is subjected to an X-ray diffraction measurement, and c2 is a c-plane degree of orientation that is defined as a ratio of the diffraction intensity of (002) plane when a portion other than the surface layer of the aluminum nitride plate is subjected to the X-ray diffraction measurement, wherein w1 is a half-value width in an X-ray rocking curve profile of (102) plane of the surface layer and w2 is a half-value width in the X-ray rocking curve profile of (102) plane of the portion other than the surface layer.

A process for producing ammonia and an apparatus for producing ammonia are disclosed herein. The process includes: the electrolytic production of a metal at a cathode of an electrolysis cell, wherein the metal is selected from Li, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Zn, Al and/or alloys and/or mixtures thereof; production of a nitride of the metal M by reaction of the electrolytically produced metal with a gas including nitrogen; introduction of the nitride of the metal M into the electrolysis cell (e.g., into an anode chamber of the electrolysis cell); and reaction of the nitride of the metal M at an anode of the electrolysis cell to produce ammonia.

A method for producing AlN crystals includes using at least one element, excluding Si, that satisfies a condition under which the element forms a compound with neither Al nor N or a condition under which the element forms a compound with any of Al and N provided that the standard free energy of formation of the compound is larger than that of AlN; melting a composition containing at least Al and the element; and reacting the Al vapor with nitrogen gas at a predetermined reaction temperature to produce AlN crystals.

An aluminum nitride plate satisfies both of a relation 1: c1>97.5% and a relation 2: c2/c1<0.995 where c1 is a c-plane degree of orientation that is defined as a ratio of a diffraction intensity of (002) plane to a sum of the diffraction intensity of (002) plane and a diffraction intensity of (100) plane when the surface layer of the aluminum nitride plate is subjected to an X-ray diffraction measurement, and c2 is a c-plane degree of (002) plane to the sum of the diffraction intensity of (002) plane and the diffraction intensity of (100) plane when a portion other than the surface layer of the aluminum nitride plate is subjected to the X-ray diffraction. Moreover, in the aluminum nitride plate, a difference in nitrogen content between the surface layer and the portion other than the surface layer is less than 0.15% in weight ratio.

An aluminum nitride plate satisfies a c1>97.5%, a c2>97.0%, a w1<2.5 degrees, and a w1/w2<0.995 where c1 is a c-plane degree of orientation that is defined as a ratio of a diffraction intensity of (002) plane when a surface layer of the aluminum nitride plate is subjected to an X-ray diffraction measurement, and c2 is a c-plane degree of orientation that is defined as a ratio of the diffraction intensity of (002) plane when a portion other than the surface layer of the aluminum nitride plate is subjected to the X-ray diffraction measurement, wherein w1 is a half-value width in an X-ray rocking curve profile of (102) plane of the surface layer and w2 is a half-value width in the X-ray rocking curve profile of (102) plane of the portion other than the surface layer.