Oxygen development during the ECM on SiC

The knowledge of type and amount of side reactions during electrochemical machining (ECM) is extremely important for better understanding of the dissolution mechanism of solid-state sintered silicon carbide (SSiC). The most common method to determine current efficiency of the machining process is the comparison between the consumed charge (coulometry) with the calculation of material removal (e.g. gravimetry) or with product analysis (e.g. by uv/vis spectroscopy). However, the determination of the amount of side reaction is indirect in the aforementioned cases. In this study, the most common side reaction - the oxygen evolution, is directly and quantitatively determined by two different methods. These methods are firstly applied and validated on the ECM process of SSiC.