What is silicon carbide used for?

The main uses of silicon carbide are divided into three parts, one is abrasive abrasives, the other is refractory materials, and the third is casting and smelting instead of ferrosilicon. It can be said that these three types of uses account for 90% of silicon carbide. Secondly, there are major applications such as applications in the semiconductor field and applications in the photovoltaic field.

SiC is a compound semiconductor material composed of silicon (Si) and carbon (C). Its binding force is very strong and it is very stable thermally, chemically and mechanically. SiC exists in various polytypes (polymorphs) with different physical property values. 4H-SiC is most suitable for power components.

The following are the main application areas of silicon carbide

1. Abrasives

As an abrasive, silicon carbide can cut extremely fast due to its high hardness, and can also be used to clean or etch the surface of a hard workpiece, which cannot be done by soft abrasives. Because silicon carbide has high hardness, chemical stability and certain toughness, silicon carbide can be used to manufacture bonded abrasives, coated abrasives and free grinding to process glass, ceramics, stone, cast iron and some Non-ferrous metals, hard alloys, titanium alloys, grinding wheels, etc.

2. Refractory materials

Because silicon carbide has a high melting point, chemical inertness and thermal shock resistance, silicon carbide can be used in mills, shelving boards and saggers used in kilns for firing ceramic products, silicon carbide used in vertical cylinder distillation furnaces in zinc smelting industry A variety of silicon carbide ceramic products such as bricks, aluminum electrolytic cell linings, crucibles, and small furnace materials. Silicon carbide refractory has excellent high-temperature properties such as high strength, large thermal conductivity, good shock resistance, oxidation resistance, wear resistance, and erosion resistance. It is a high-quality refractory material.

3. Foundry industry

Silicon carbide is very important in the foundry industry. Silicon carbide for foundry can effectively improve the metallurgical quality of molten iron, thereby reducing the above problems. At present, the price of ferrosilicon in the market has skyrocketed, and the price of silicon carbide has basically remained unchanged. In addition, the aluminum content contained in ferrosilicon is higher than that of silicon carbide, so it is better to replace ferrosilicon with silicon carbide. Using silicon carbide (generally Using low-quality silicon carbide) instead of ferrosilicon deoxidation can also save a lot of resources for enterprises.

4. Semiconductor

Silicon carbide one-dimensional nanomaterials have more unique excellent properties and wider application prospects due to their own microscopic morphology and crystal structure, and are generally considered to be an important component of the third-generation wide bandgap semiconductor materials. The third-generation semiconductor materials are wide-bandgap semiconductor materials, also known as high-temperature semiconductor materials, mainly including silicon carbide, gallium nitride, aluminum nitride, zinc oxide, diamond, etc.

As a typical representative of the third-generation semiconductor material, silicon carbide is also one of the most mature and widely used wide-bandgap semiconductor materials in crystal production technology and device manufacturing level. At present, a global industrial chain of materials, devices and applications has been formed. . It is an ideal semiconductor material for high temperature, high frequency, radiation resistance and high power applications. Since silicon carbide power devices can significantly reduce the energy consumption of electronic equipment, silicon carbide devices are also known as "green energy devices" that drive the "new energy revolution".

5. Photovoltaic

Photovoltaic inverters are very important to photovoltaic power generation. They not only have the function of DC-AC conversion, but also have the function of maximizing the performance of solar cells and system failure protection. In summary, there are automatic operation and shutdown functions, maximum power tracking control functions, anti-solitary operation functions (for grid-connected systems), automatic voltage adjustment functions (for grid-connected systems), DC detection functions (for grid-connected systems), and DC grounding detection Function (for grid-connected system), etc.

In the future, the main application of silicon carbide may also be concentrated in the fields of circuit components, semiconductors, structural materials, clutches, nuclear fuels, and cutting tools. And with the improvement of recycling technology, it is also possible to realize the recycling of some finished products.