Ferrosilicon

Your Leading Silicon Supplier in China

Guangzhou Shenglong Import And Export Trade Co., Ltd have several factories in Henan. Our main products are: silicon manganese, industrial silicon, steel sand aluminum, aluminum block, aluminum iron, silicon aluminum iron, ferrochrome, ferromanganese, manganese ore, carburizing agent and so on

R&D Capability

We have laboratories and our own technical center equipped with advanced chemical analysis equipment, physical testing chambers and experimental workshops that can conduct small-scale to large-scale testing.

Support Customization

We can produce various types of ferroalloy according to customer demand, at the same time, chemical composition and particle size can also be customized.

Best Cost Assurance

We have four production lines with an annual output of 50,000 tons. All our products are shipped directly from the production site, which enabled us to provide our partners with high quality, low price and competitive services.

Quality Assurance

Third-party testing institutions guarantee that each batch of goods meets the requirements of our partners. Our production process is implemented under the advanced quality control mechanism, and each link is strictly controlled to ensure that the goods delivered to the partner are fully qualified.

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What is Silicon

Silicon is a chemical element; it has symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic table: carbon is above it; and germanium, tin, lead, and flerovium are below it. It is relatively unreactive.

Product Specification

Symbol	Si
Atomic number	14
Atomic mass	28.0855 g/mol
Key Isotopes	28Si, 30Si
Electronic configuration	(Ne) 3s2 3p2
Electronegativity	1.8
Oxidation state	−4,(+2),+4

Properties of Silicon

Being a metalloid, silicon also occurs in two allotropic forms. Allotropes are the element forms which have various chemical and physical properties

Physical Properties of Silicon

●One silicon's allotrope is in the form of needle-like, shiny, greyish-black crystals or flat plates, while the other one has no crystal structure and it exists usually as a brown powder.
●The atomic number of silicon is 14 and its relative atomic mass is 28.085 u.
●The density of silicon is 2.3296 grams per cubic centimetre.
●The silicon melting point is 1,410°C and the silicon boiling point is 3,265°C.
●Silicon in its purest form is an intrinsic semiconductor Although adding impurities in small amounts helps in highly increasing the intensity of semiconductor.

Chemical Properties of Silicon

●Silicon is purely electropositive in its chemical behaviour, has a metallic lustre, and is considered to be very brittle.
●Silicon is very similar to metals in terms of chemical behaviour.
●At room temperature, silicon is a relatively inactive element. Being solid, it does not combine with oxygen or other most related elements.
●Silicon is very reactive at higher temperatures.
●Silicon combines with oxygen, phosphorus, nitrogen, and other elements. It also forms alloys in the molten state.

Polymers of Silicon

Silanes

Silanes are members of homologous series of silicon hydrides, and they are very strong reducing agents. They catch fire very easily and are very reactive when exposed to air. They are not stable at room temperature.

Silicides

Silicides have structures that are similar to carbides and borides and therefore, the heats of formation are usually similar to that of carbides and borides of the same elements.

Silica

These are also known as silicon dioxide and their major constituents are granite and sandstone.

Halides

Silicon carbides and silicon react with stable halogens forming silicon tetrahalides. These silicon tetrahalides readily hydrolyse in water, unlike carbon tetrahalides.

Silicate Minerals

About 95% of the earth’s rocks consists of silicate minerals. If the mass is taken into consideration, then around 28% is of the earth’s crust consists of silicon.

Silicic Acids

Increasing the concentration of water results in the formation of hydrated silica gels. Most of the silica acids exist in aqueous solutions.

Applications of Silicon

Silicon is a vital component of modern day industry. Its abundance makes it all the more useful. Silicon can be found in products ranging from concrete to computer chips

Electronics
The high tech sector's adoption of the title Silicon Valley underscores the importance of silicon in modern day technology. Pure silicon, that is, essentially pure silicon, has the unique ability of being able to discretely control the number and charge of the current that passes through it. This makes silicon play a role of utmost importance in devices such as transistors, solar cells, integrated circuits, microprocessors, and semiconductor devices, where such current control is a necessity for proper performance. Semiconductors exemplify silicon's use in contemporary technology.

Semiconductors
Semiconductors are unique materials that have neither the electrical conductivity of a conductor nor that of an insulator. Semiconductors lie somewhere in between these two classes, giving them a very useful property. Semiconductors are able to manipulate electric current. They are used to rectify, amplify, and switch electrical signals and are thus integral components of modern day electronics.
Semiconductors can be made out of a variety of materials, but the majority of semiconductors are made out of silicon. But semiconductors are not made out of silicates, or silanes, or silicones; they are made out of pure silicon, that is, essentially pure silicon crystal. Like carbon, silicon can make a diamond-like crystal. This structure is called a silicon lattice. Silicon is perfect for making this lattice structure because its four valence electrons allow it to perfectly bond to four of its silicon neighbors.
However, this silicon lattice is essentially an insulator, as there are no free electrons for any charge movement, and is therefore not a semiconductor. This crystalline structure is turned into a semiconductor when it is doped. Doping refers to a process by which impurities are introduced into ultra-pure silicon, thereby changing its electrical properties and turning it into a semiconductor. Doping turns pure silicon into a semiconductor by adding or removing a very, very small number of electrons, thereby making it neither an insulator nor a conductor, but a semiconductor with limited charge conduction. Subtle manipulation of pure silicon lattices via doping generates the wide variety of semiconductors that modern day electrical technology requires.
Semiconductors are made out of silicon for two fundamental reasons. Silicon has the properties needed to make semiconductors, and silicon is the second most abundant element on earth.

Glasses
Glass is another silicon derivate that is widely utilized by modern day society. If sand, a silica deposit, is mixed with sodium and calcium carbonate at temperatures near 1500 degrees Celsius, when the resulting product cools, glass forms. Glass is a particularly interesting state of silicon. Glass is unique because it represents a solid non-crystalline form of silicon. The tetrahedral silica elements bind together, but in no fundamental pattern behind the bonding.
The end result of this unique chemical structure is the often brittle, typically optically transparent material known as glass. This silica complex can be found virtually anywhere human civilization is found.
Glass can be tainted by adding chemical impurities to the basal silica structure.
The addition of even a little Fe2O3 to pure silica glass gives the resultant mixed glass a distinctive green color.

Fiber Optics
Modern fiber optic cables must relay data via undistorted light signals over vast distances. To undertake this task, fiber optic cables must be made of special ultra-high purity glass. The secret behind this ultra-high purity glass is ultra pure silica. To make fiber optic cables meet operational standards, the impurity levels in the silica of these fiber optic cables has been reduced to parts per billion. This level of purity allows for the vast communications network that our society has come to take for granted.

Ceramics
Silicon plays an integral role in the construction industry. Silicon, specifically silica, is a primary ingredient in building components such as bricks, cement, ceramics, and tiles.
Additionally, silicates, especially quartz, are very thermodynamically stable. This translates to silicon ceramics having high heat tolerance. This property makes silicon ceramics particularily useful for things ranging from space ship hulls to engine components.

Polymers
Silicone polymers represent another facet of silicon's usefulness. They are generally characterized by their flexibility, resistance to chemical attack, impermeability to water, and their ability to retain their properties at both high and low temperatures. This array of properties makes silicone polymers very useful. They are used in insulation, cookware, high temperature lubricants, medical equipment, sealants, adhesives, and even as an alternative to plastic in toys.

The Manufacturing Process of Silicon

The basic process heats silica and coke in a submerged electric arc furnace to high temperatures. High temperatures are required to produce a reaction where the oxygen is removed, leaving behind silicon. This is known as a reduction process. In this process, metal carbides usually form first at the lower temperatures. As silicon is formed, it displaces the carbon. Refining processes are used to improve purity

The Reduction Process

The raw materials are weighed and then placed into the furnace through the top using the fume hood, buckets, or cars. A typical batch contains 1000 lb (453 kg) each of gravel and chips, and 550 lb (250 kg) of coal. The lid of the furnace, which contains electrodes, is placed into position. Electric current is passed through the electrodes to form an arc. The heat generated by this arc (a temperature of 4000° F or 2350 ° C) melts the material and results in the reaction of sand with carbon to form silicon and carbon monoxide. This process takes about six to eight hours. The furnace is continuously charged with the batches of raw materials.
While the metal is in the molten state, it is treated with oxygen and air to reduce the amount of calcium and aluminum impurities. Depending on the grade, silicon metal contains 98.5-99.99% silicon with trace amounts of iron, calcium and aluminum.

Cooling/Crushing

Oxidized material, called slag, is poured off into pots and cooled. The silicon metal is cooled in large cast iron trays about 8 ft (2.4 m) across and 8 in (20 cm) deep. After cooling, the metal is dumped from the mold into a truck, weighed and then dumped in the storage pile. Dumping the metal from the mold to the truck breaks it up sufficiently for storage. Before shipping, the metal is sized according to customer specifications, which may require a crushing process using jaw or cone crushers.

Packaging

Silicon metal is usually packaged in large sacks or wooden boxes weighing up to 3,000 lb (1,361 kg). In powder form, silicon is packaged in 50-lb (23-kg) plastic pails or paper bags, 500-lb (227-kg) steel drums or 3,000-lb (1,361-kg) large sacks or boxes.

Common Problem of Silicon

Q: What is pure silicon?

A: It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic table: carbon is above it; and germanium, tin, lead, and flerovium are below it. It is relatively unreactive. Silicon, 14Si.

Q: Is silicon a pure metal?

A: Silicon is neither metal nor non-metal; it's a metalloid, an element that falls somewhere between the two. The category of metalloid is something of a gray area, with no firm definition of what fits the bill, but metalloids generally have properties of both metals and non-metals.

Q: How is high purity silicon made?

A: Very pure silicon (>99.9%) can be extracted directly from solid silica or other silicon compounds by molten salt electrolysis. This method, known as early as 1854, has the potential to directly produce solar-grade silicon without any carbon dioxide emission at much lower energy consumption.

Q: Can you find pure silicon?

A: It looks like a metal, but its other characteristics are more non-metallic than metallic. It is the second-most common element in the Earth's crust, mostly in the form of silica (SiO2). Pure silicon is never found in nature. There are hundreds of silicon-bearing minerals, including quartz, probably the second most common mineral on Earth. Silicon is chiefly obtained from quartz, which is not much more difficult to mine than scooping up sand. Silicon is also obtained from the minerals mica and talc.

Q: What is the most pure silicon?

A: Pure silicon is produced by heating silicon dioxide with carbon at temperatures approaching 2200°C. Silicon can get quite pure, and even different isotopes can get quite pure. Special techniques are able to make silicon that is 99.9999% pure Si-28

Q: Is pure silicon a semiconductor?

A: The pure form of silicon has an atomic structure that makes it highly effective as a semiconductor. This means it has the conductive properties of metal as well as being an insulator, so silicon can conduct and block electricity. This ability makes silicon ideal as a switching mechanism.

Q: Where do we get silicon from?

A: Silicon makes up 27.7% of the Earth’s crust by mass and is the second most abundant element (oxygen is the first). It does not occur uncombined in nature but occurs chiefly as the oxide (silica) and as silicates. The oxide includes sand, quartz, rock crystal, amethyst, agate, flint and opal. The silicate form includes asbestos, granite, hornblende, feldspar, clay and mica. Elemental silicon is produced commercially by reducing sand with carbon in an electric furnace. High-purity silicon, for the electronics industry, is prepared by the thermal decomposition of ultra-pure trichlorosilane, followed by recrystallisation.

Q: What is silicon used for in everyday life?

A: There are a wide variety of industrial and commercial uses for silicon and its compounds. Some well-known examples include its use as a semiconductor in electronic devices such as computers and phones, for the production of glass (as silica and silicates), and for medical procedures (as silicone).

Q: Is pure silicon naturally occurring?

A: Silicon is a naturally occurring shiny bluish-silver metalloid. The element in its pure form is not common, although silicon is the second most abundant element in the earth's crust following oxygen. Pure silicon is most notably used in technology, where it is used to make semiconductors.

Q: What type of element is silicon?

A: Is silicon a metal? No, despite its metal-like appearance, the element silicon belongs to a unique group of elements called metalloids. Elements classified as metalloids have properties of both metals and nonmetals. Because each metalloid element has a unique mix of metal and nonmetal properties, there is no unanimous definition for this group. This is why the number of elements considered to belong to the metalloid group varies between six to nine elements.

Q: Why is pure silicon so expensive?

A: The primary cause is the high cost of production, notably the high energy cost. Because the silicone is created by converting sand into high purity silica. Prior to the polymerization of the silica to produce silicones, the generated silica goes through a refining step.

Q: Is silicon and silica same?

A: Silicon is a chemical element widely used in electronics and as a semiconductor. Silica is a compound derived from silicon commonly found in nature and used in various industrial and consumer applications, including glass production and as a filler in paints, plastics, and rubber.

Q: Are microchips pure silicon?

A: Chips are made in multibillion-dollar fabrication plants called fabs. Fabs melt and refine sand to produce 99.9999% pure single-crystal silicon ingots. Saws slice the ingots into wafers about as thick as a dime and several inches in diameter.

Q: How is ultra pure silicon made?

A: To manufacture polycrystalline silicon, ultra-pure silicon is produced from raw quartzite (silica sand) that is melted and reduced to silicon in an electric arc furnace at over 1900ºC. This metallurgical-grade silicon is drawn from the furnace and blown with oxygen or an oxygen-chloride mixture to reduce the levels of impurities to achieve approximately 99% pure silicon. Next, the silicon is reacted with hydrogen chloride gas in the presence of a copper-containing catalyst to form trichlorosilane (SiHCl3). The trichlorosilane is reduced to very pure silicon by reacting it with hydrogen at high temperatures (about 1100ºC). This "electronic grade" silicon has less than 1 ppb of impurities.

Q: What is silicon ingots?

A: Silicon ingots are large blocks of silicon that are used in the production of semiconductor devices. They are typically created by melting high-purity silicon and then slowly cooling it to form a single crystal structure. The resulting ingot is then sliced into thin wafers, which are used as the basis for the production of computer chips and other electronic devices. Silicon ingots can be several inches in diameter and several feet long, depending on the desired size and shape of the final semiconductor product. The high purity and uniformity of the silicon ingot are crucial to the performance of the final semiconductor device.

Q: Is pure silicon intrinsic?

A: It is easiest to begin with a specific example. Silicon is a group IV element, and has 4 valence electrons per atom. In pure silicon the valence band is completely filled at absolute zero. At finite temperatures the only charge carriers are the electrons in the conduction band and the holes in the valence band that arise as a result of the thermal excitation of electrons to the conduction band. These charge carriers are called intrinsic charge carriers, and necessarily there are equal numbers of electrons and holes. Pure silicon is therefore an example of an intrinsic semiconductor.

Q: Why does silicon need to be pure?

A: For example, it is well-known that silicon wafers need to be refined to a purity of 99.9999999% (wt %) (nine nines) for integrated circuits. In the case of photovoltaics, it is regarded that the purity of Si needs to be above 99.9999% (wt %) (six nines) to enable long carrier diffusion length (2, 7).

Q: Does pure silicon conduct electricity?

A: Silicon and germanium are the cornerstones of transistor technology and the mini-electronics industry. Pure silicon and germanium are poor conductors of electricity because their outer electrons are tied up in the covalent bonds of the diamondlike framework.

Q: Is pure silicon brittle?

A: Silicon is a hard, relatively inert metalloid and in crystalline form is very brittle with a marked metallic luster. Silicon occurs mainly in nature as the oxide and as silicates. The solid form of silicon does not react with oxygen, water and most acids.

Q: How pure is solar grade silicon?

A: The electronic grade Si is generally 99.99% pure. The Si used in the manufacturing of solar cells and solar components has to be even more pure. A purity of 99.9999999% is required by the most advanced solar cells. This is often referred to as "9N" for "9 nines", a process which requires repeated refining.

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