Silicon Carbide

The natural resistance to oxidation exhibited by silicon carbide, as well as the discovery of new ways to synthesize the higher surface area beta form, has led to significant interest in its use as a heterogeneous catalyst support. Silicon carbide's hardness and rigidity make it a desirable mirror material for astronomical work, although its properties also make manufacturing and designing such mirrors quite difficult. Silicon carbide is often used as a layer of the TRISO coating for the nuclear fuel elements of high temperature gas cooled reactors or very high temperature reactors. Silicon carbide is a hard covalently bonded material predominantly produced by the carbothermal reduction of silica (typically using the Acheson process). Silicon carbide dissolved in a basic oxygen furnace used for making steel acts as a fuel and provides energy which increases the scrap to hot metal ratio. Silicon carbide is used for blue LEDs, ultrafast Schottky diodes, MESFETs and high temperature IGBTs and thyristors for high power switching. Silicon carbide is a popular product in modern lapidary due to the durablility and low cost of the material.