Equation of state of aluminum silicon carbide α-Al4SiC4

Quasi-hydrostatic compression of aluminum silicon carbide, α-Al4SiC4, has been studied up to 6 GPa at room temperature using energy-dispersive X-ray powder diffraction with synchrotron radiation. A fit of the experimental p–V data to the Birch equation of state yields the values of the bulk modulus, B0, of 182(10) GPa with fixed first pressure derivative of the bulk modulus, B′0, of 4.0. The compression is found to be anisotropic with higher compressibility along c-axis.