The feasibility of synthesizing silicon nitride powder utilizing reactive atomization processing was analysed. The range of times required for the flight time of particles, the cooling rate of the silicon melt, the reaction time of silicon and nitrogen, and the diffusion of nitrogen through silicon nitride layers were obtained and compared. The results of this study indicated that the production of silicon nitride powder through the reactive atomization process would be limited by diffusion of nitrogen through the nitride (ash) layer, assuming the nitride layer was coherent and the unreacted core model was a valid representation of the liquid silicon-silicon nitride system.