What Is Industrial Silicon Used For

Dec 16, 2024

Industrial silicon is usually made by reducing silicon dioxide with carbon in an electric furnace. High-purity silicon is extracted from quartz. Metallurgical-grade silicon is mainly prepared by reducing quartz sand with carbon in an electric arc furnace. Silicon is the second most abundant chemical element on earth. As a semiconductor material, it has been studied the most and has the most mature technology. In addition, crystalline silicon has stable performance and is non-toxic, so it has become the main material in the research, development, production and application of solar cells.

 

In the smelting process of industrial silicon, its raw materials mainly include silica and carbonaceous reducing agents. In the production process, there are strict standards for the purity and characteristics of the raw materials. As the main raw material, silica needs to have a silicon dioxide content of more than 99.0%, and the impurity content of aluminum, calcium, iron, etc. needs to be controlled below 0.3%, below 0.15% and below 0.2% respectively, and the magnesium oxide content should be less than 0.15%. In addition, the particle size of silica should be between 15 and 80 mm...


What is industrial silicon used for? Answer: First of all, industrial silicon plays an important role in the aluminum alloy industry. It can be used as a deoxidizer in the steelmaking process to improve the quality of steel and the utilization rate of the deoxidizer. In addition, industrial silicon is also an additive for non-ferrous alloys, used to smelt special steels and other non-ferrous alloys. Secondly, in the chemical industry, industrial silicon is a key raw material for the production of silicone rubber, silicone resin, silicone oil and other organosilicon compounds. These organosilicon products have excellent high temperature resistance.