Recently, the Chief Minister of Odisha performed the groundbreaking ceremony for  the country’s first end-to-end silicon carbide semiconductor production plant.

About Silicon Carbide
Silicon carbide (SiC) is a synthetic, crystalline compound made from silicon and carbon, renowned for its extreme hardness and excellent thermal conductivity. It is widely used in industries due to its durability, high temperature resistance, and semiconducting properties.​

Key Properties

• Hardness: Among the hardest materials, SiC only trails diamond, cubic boron nitride, and boron carbide. This makes it suitable as an abrasive, in machining, grinding wheels, and sandpapers.​
• Thermal Conductivity & Stability: SiC exhibits superior thermal conductivity and low thermal expansion, ensuring dimensional and performance stability at high temperatures.​
• Wear and Oxidation Resistance: Its chemical inertness provides resistance to wear and oxidation, ideal for protective applications like bulletproof vests and automotive components.​
• Wide Bandgap Semiconductor: Its wide bandgap (3.26 eV) enables devices to operate at high voltages and temperatures, outpacing traditional silicon in power electronics.​
• Appearance: Typically seen as a black-grey to green powder or as lustrous crystals.​

Structure and Chemistry

• Crystallography: SiC crystallizes in close-packed structures with strong covalent bonds, and occurs as various polytypes—stacking arrangements of tetrahedra.​
• Natural Occurrence: Rarely found as moissanite in meteorites, nearly all commercially used SiC is synthetic.​

Uses and Applications

• Abrasives: Due to its hardness, SiC is a popular abrasive in machining and lapidary work.​
• Automotive: Used in brake and clutch components for endurance under high-stress conditions.​
• Bulletproof Armor: Plates made of SiC ceramics provide protection because of their high strength.
• Electronics: SiC substrates enable high-powered semiconductors, LEDs, and devices that require fast switching at high voltages or temperatures.​
• Industrial Furnaces: SiC serves in refractory linings and as heating elements owing to its thermal durability.​

Recent Developments
Research Breakthroughs: Efforts such as at IIT Madras have focused on extracting SiC from simulated lunar soil, indicating potential for advanced space applications.​

Physical and Chemical Data (Selected)

Property	Value
Chemical Formula	SiC
Density	3.21 g/cm³
Melting Point	2,730 °C
Solubility	Insoluble in water
Electrical Conductivity	Semiconductor

 
Silicon carbide’s unique features make it central in many emerging technologies and high-performance engineering fields.

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