α Silicon Carbide VS. β silicon carbide

Generally, Carborundum refers to silicon carbide whose crystal phase is α phase. Carborundum includes green silicon carbide and black silicon carbide according to the purity of SiC. The purity of green silicon carbide is slightly higher than that of black silicon carbide.

In fact, there are more than 70 crystal forms of silicon carbide, and α-SiC is the most common crystal form, which is a hexagonal crystal form. In the artificial synthesis process, it can be obtained by high-temperature smelting at 2200 °C. When the temperature is between 1800°C and 2000°C, β-phase silicon carbide will be formed. There will be a small amount of straw-yellow-green β-SiC crystals from the heart of the smelting furnace to the insulation layer. However, the beta silicon carbide collected by this method is not easy to obtain, and the selection is strict. Now β silicon carbide production process is a direct-reacion way. The crystal form of β silicon carbide is cubic crystal, also known as cubic silicon carbide. It works excellent for refractory, grinding, and ceramics industries with high technical requirements.

Although cubic silicon carbide has better performance than ordinary alpha silicon carbide, the price is 20-30 times that of α silicon carbide, and the cost is very high. It is very difficult to popularize it at present. In the industrial industry,  α-silicon carbide is also the most widely used and most cost-effective silicon carbide material.