High Temperature Reactions in the Si Process – High Temperature SiC Formation.

In the high silicon production process, black silicon carbide (SiC) crusts have been found. This SiC crust is also known as α-SiC or high temperature SiC. SiC crust has a relatively high electrical conductivity and it is believed that the SiC-crust will contribute to the energy dissipation in the process. There are three main theories on how this SiC crust is formed;

a) Carbon added to the process will be transformed to β-SiC, which again at high temperatures will transform to α-SiC.
b) α-SiC is precipitated from liquid silicon during temperature variations.
c) α-SiC is produced when gaseous SiCx compounds are formed in the high temperature arc, and then condensed at lower temperatures on the crater wall.

My project aims to study various formation methods of α-SiC and investigate the structure of various SiC products, compare them with industrial SiC crusts. Various furnace experiments such as plasma furnace, induction furnace experiments will be performed to evaluate the SiC formation. Different microscopic techniques such as EPMA, SEM, TEM, XRD will be applied to characterize the different phases in various SiC samples. The usage for the industry will be a higher knowledge level of their furnace operation. The innovations that may come from this project is new operation strategies.

Resource Group: Professor Merete Tangstad (NTNU), Edin Myrhaug (Elkem), Ørjan Berntsen (Finnfjord)

Contact: sethulakshmy.jayakumari@ntnu.no