Silicon carbide (RSiC) is an increasingly popular material due to its superior mechanical properties, including high strength, excellent wear resistance and corrosion resistance as well as thermal shock resistance and electrical conductivity.
Kiln furniture made of RSiC can be manufactured with custom-tailored necking areas using an IR laser irradiation method.
Structural Materials
Utilizing VS powder and carbon nanoparticles as starting materials, porous RSiC ceramics with tailored neck areas were produced via carbothermal reduction and recrystallization. Their XRD patterns revealed that their original shapes and diameters of carbon nanoparticles had been preserved during recrystallization; enabling a direct correlation between neck diameter and flexural strength of porous RSiC ceramics to be established.
Optimizing the d/d0 value of porous ceramic a-SiC materials is one way to enhance their flexural strength at room temperature, which measures the ratio between neck diameter and micron-sized SiC grains. An excellent flexural strength result can be seen for porous RSiC with an approximated value of 0.8 in terms of its d/d0 ratio.
Due to its superior mechanical properties such as corrosion resistance and impact resistance, aluminum composite materials are widely used in aerospace and military equipment production. Furthermore, they also serve as automobile components exposed to harsh chemical environments.
RSiC is also an ideal material for honeycomb solar power towers that absorb the sun’s strong light and convert it to heat in order to generate electricity. Thanks to its thermal shock resistance and oxidation resistance, its use allows power plants to operate at higher temperatures while the non-densifying mechanism of evaporation condensation during recrystallization allows large parts with precise dimensions that help ensure safety as well as efficiency for these power plants.
Porous Materials
Porous materials are distinguished by the presence of cavities (pores, channels or interstices). Their properties depend on the size, shape, number and arrangement of their pores.
Porous materials’ pore structures are determined by a combination of factors including their morphology and microstructure – size and composition of pore-forming elements – making careful selection of these elements for each application vital to attaining the desired properties of porousness.
Recrystallized sic is well-suited to producing large-scale porous products like filter tubes and nozzles due to its strength. Since recrystallized sic does not shrink during sintering processes, dimensional accuracy is achieved; which is especially crucial for applications like diesel vehicle exhaust and metal smelting filtration.
Porous sic can also be endowed with different chemical functionalities to meet specific applications. For instance, they have been used to effectively filter water by absorbing various organic and inorganic pollutants.
One study32 investigated the effect of pore-wall additives on electrical resistivity and flexural strength of mullite-bonded porous sic. Results demonstrated that using either acceptors or donors as additives decreased electrical resistivity by providing free charge carriers, and correlating with its d/d0 value which is defined as the ratio between neck diameter to coarse micron-sized grain diameter ratio.
Heat Exchangers
Silicon carbide has many applications due to its excellent mechanical, thermal and electrical properties. Recrystallized sic (RSiC), one variant of silicon carbide material with unique microstructure combining properties similar to other SiC materials but even superior properties than them, makes RSiC the perfect material choice for high temperature/high stress applications.
Heat exchangers are vital components in numerous industrial and commercial systems, acting to transfer heat between liquids or gases without them coming into direct contact – this can take place between liquid-to-liquid, gas-to-gas or liquid-to-gas systems; depending on their application they may also need to be chemical resistant and hardwearing.
RSiC is an ideal material for heat exchangers due to its superior mechanical and thermal properties, as it can be formed into various shapes such as flat plates and elongated structures. Furthermore, it stands up well under high-pressure environments making it a suitable and durable option suitable for many different applications.
Heat exchangers made of RSiC can be utilized in numerous chemical and semiconductor processes. These exchangers are designed to conserve energy and lower operating temperatures while decreasing maintenance costs; additionally, the material handles fouling, pressure drops, corrosion resistance, as well as fouling/pressure drop scenarios with ease and is available in multiple configurations such as shell-and-tube heat exchangers.
Electrical Functional Materials
Recrystallized SiC is used in the production of electrical functional materials such as resistors and thermistors due to its excellent thermal conductivity, resistance to oxidation and mechanical stress resistance properties.
Sintered porous SiC can be altered through doping with various additives. Doping agents increase energy concentration near the bandgap, thus decreasing resistance, while deep acceptors (e.g. Sc and Al) compensate for N2 donors in porous SiC and reduce its resistance further.
Another way to control the electrical resistivity of sintered porous sic is to add various metal nitrides and carbides (TiN and AlN can improve resistivity by creating conductive phase boundary conditions, while carbides (NbC and TiN) can lower resistance by inducing phase transformation within SiC grains and decreasing resistance by activating their b-to-a phase transformation processes.
Recrystallized sic is widely utilized in high-temperature kiln equipment due to its excellent corrosion and abrasion resistance, making it the material of choice when lining these types of devices. Furthermore, recrystallized sic boasts strong thermal shock tolerance making it suitable for harsh industrial environments and its strong oxidation resistance prevents damage caused by acidic and alkaline chemical environments which in turn allow it to maintain strength and integrity at high temperatures, improving equipment efficiency and lifespan.
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