Silicon Carbide

What is Silicon Carbide?
Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum, is a compound of silicon and carbon with chemical formula SiC. It occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite. Silicon carbide powder has been mass-produced since 1893 for use as an abrasive. Grains of silicon carbide can be bonded together by sintering to form very hard ceramics that are widely used in applications requiring high endurance, such as car brakes, car clutches and ceramic plates in bulletproof vests. Electronic applications of silicon carbide as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and detectors in early radios were first demonstrated around 1907, and today SiC is widely used in high-temperature/high-voltage semiconductor electronics. Large single crystals of silicon carbide can be grown by the Lely method; they can be cut into gems known as synthetic moissanite. Silicon carbide with high surface area can be produced from SiO2 contained in plant material.

Structure and Properties
Silicon carbide exists in about 250 crystalline forms. The polymorphism of SiC is characterized by a large family of similar crystalline structures called polytypes. They are variations of the same chemical compound that are identical in two dimensions and differ in the third. Thus, they can be viewed as layers stacked in a certain sequence.
Alpha silicon carbide (α-SiC) is the most commonly encountered polymorph; it is formed at temperatures greater than 1700 °C and has a hexagonal crystal structure (similar to Wurtzite). The beta modification (β-SiC), with a zinc blende crystal structure (similar to diamond), is formed at temperatures below 1700 °C. Until recently, the beta form has had relatively few commercial uses, although there is now increasing interest in its use as a support for heterogeneous catalysts, owing to its higher surface area compared to the alpha form.

Silicon Carbide’s Applicatons
Because of high hardness, high welting point, high thermal conduct rate,  high temperature semi-conductor and low swell rate, as well as high steady, far-infrared radiation rate, acidproof, alkaliproof ect. special feature, the products are mainly used in abrasive material, abrasive tool, high temperature refractory materials, metallurgy oxygen reducing, fine ceramics, alloy, electron, chemical industry and space industry high technical field, specially the silicon carbide fined powder is now researched as a kind of new materials in super-century strategy, therefore has a very wide developing foreground.