India’s First silicon Carbide:
The Chief Minister of Odisha graced the ground-breaking ceremony of India’s first silicon carbide manufacturing facility to be set up in Odisha at an investment of Rs 620 crore.
- Silicon Carbide was discovered by the American inventor Edward G. Achesonin 1891.
- Its chemical formula is SiC and it is the most widely used non-oxide ceramic.
- It is an exceedingly hard, synthetically produced crystalline compound of silicon and carbon.
- In addition to hardness, silicon carbide crystals have fracture characteristics that make them extremely useful in grinding wheels and in abrasive paper and cloth products.
- It has high thermal conductivity and high-temperature strength, low thermal expansion, and resistance to chemical reaction which makes it valuable in the manufacture of high-temperature bricks and other refractories.
- It is also classed as a semiconductor, having an electrical conductivity between that of metals and insulating materials.
- This property, in combination with its thermal properties, makes SiC a promising substitute for traditional semiconductors such as silicon in high-temperature applications.
