There are four main applications for silicon carbide: abrasives, refractories, functional ceramics and metallurgical raw materials.
1. Abrasives. Because silicon carbide abrasives have high hardness, chemical stability and certain toughness, they are a very versatile abrasive and can be used to manufacture grinding wheels, oil stones, coated abrasives, etc. It is mainly used for grinding non-metallic materials such as glass, ceramics, stone, cast iron and some non-ferrous metals, and the reactivity with these materials is very poor.
2. Refractory materials. Silicon carbide refractory has excellent high temperature properties such as high strength, high thermal conductivity, impact resistance, oxidation resistance, wear resistance and corrosion resistance. Widely used in metallurgy, energy, chemical industry and other industries.
3. Ceramics. Silicon carbide ceramics are a kind of high-tech ceramics, silicon carbide ceramics are mainly made of submicron silicon carbide powder. Silicon carbide has high hardness, and silicon carbide ceramics made with mature technology have good wear resistance, high temperature resistance and corrosion resistance.
4. Metallurgical raw materials. At present, an important chemical use of silicon carbide is as a steelmaking purifier. Silicon carbide decomposes in molten steel and reacts with free oxygen and metal oxides in molten steel to form carbon monoxide and silicon-containing slag. Silicon carbide is often added when smelting cast iron, so that a small amount of silicon enters the molten iron to promote the perfection of casting.
