How to Make Silicon Carbide
Silicon carbide (SiC) is one of the hardest synthetic materials known, making it popularly used in industrial refractories due to its extreme hardness and wear resistance. As it’s a wide bandgap semiconductor with excellent heat and radiation resistance, this material can also be found in paper and cloth products that require abrasive action. Producing SiC using the traditional Acheson process is highly energy-intensive and requires large amounts of electricity to maintain high furnace temperatures as well as carbon from natural resources. The Acheson Process Silicon carbide is one of the hardest materials known to humanity, only rivaled in hardness by diamond and cubic boron nitride. As a ceramic material with …