Carbides refer to binary compound formed by carbon and elements (except hydrogen) with smaller or similar electronegativity. Carbides have higher melting points. Most carbides are produced by the reaction of carbon and metal at high temperatures. Carbides have high temperature resistance, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and good conductivity, and are widely used in the fields of ceramics, cutting tools, wear-resistant materials, etc. In recent years, carbides have also shown good performance in the catalytic field. Carbide materials are widely used in industrial alloy production due to their unique strength, hardness, and stability. Their performance determines their use. Let's take a look at the performance of common carbides together!

1. Calcium carbide (CaC2), the main component of calcium carbide, is inorganic compound, white crystal, industrial products are grayish black lumps, and the cross section is purple or gray. Immediately react violently with water, generating acetylene and releasing heat. The ore is a yellow brown or black block solid, and the pure product is a white crystal (purple with higher CaC2 content). The density is 2.22g/cm3, and the melting point is 2300 ℃ (related to the CaC2 content). When it encounters water, it immediately undergoes a fierce reaction, generating acetylene and releasing heat. The melting point also changes with different calcium carbide content. The main applications include: (1) Acetylene generated by the reaction of calcium carbide with water can synthesize many organic compounds, such as synthetic rubber, artificial resin, acetone, ketene, carbon black, etc; At the same time, acetylene oxygen flame is widely used for metal welding and cutting. (2) When heating powdered calcium carbide with nitrogen, the reaction generates calcium cyanamide, which is lime nitrogen:

Lime nitrogen is an important raw material for the preparation of cyanamide. The melt generated by the reaction of heated lime nitrogen with table salt is used in gold mining and non-ferrous metal industry. (3) Calcium carbide itself can be used as a desulfurizer in the steel industry. (4) Produce polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The calcium carbide method for producing polyvinyl chloride is a chemical reaction method that uses calcium carbide to generate acetylene when it meets water, synthesize acetylene with hydrogen chloride to produce vinyl chloride monomer, and then polymerize to produce polyvinyl chloride. (5) In the old days, miners went down to the mine and put calcium carbide into iron cans to use the generated acetylene to make a calcium carbide lamp. Lime nitrogen is an important raw material for the preparation of cyanamide. The melt generated by the reaction of heated lime nitrogen with table salt is used for gold mining and non-ferrous metal industry;

2. Chromium carbide (Cr3C2) Chromium carbide is an inorganic material with good wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and oxidation resistance in high-temperature environments (1000-1100 ℃), belonging to a type of metal ceramic. Due to its special high-temperature performance, it is widely used as a thermal spraying material for metal surface protection processes and an additive in the hard alloy industry. Chromium carbide is a gray powder with metallic luster, with a density of 6.68g/cm3, a melting point of 1890 ℃, and a boiling point of 3800 ℃; It has good wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and oxidation resistance in high-temperature environments (1000-1100 ℃). The main uses are: (1) It can be used as an additive for hard alloys (such as a grain refiner for tungsten carbide based hard alloys), and can be applied in mining, mechanical processing, and other fields. (2) It can be used as a welding material additive, and the welding rod made of it can be used for surfacing on the working surface of certain mechanical equipment (such as coal mills, ball mills, jaw plates, etc.), which can increase the service life by several times or more. (3) A large amount of thermal spraying materials used for metal surface protection processes.

3. tantalum carbide (TaC) tantalum carbide, a transition metal carbide; Black or dark brown metallic powder, cubic crystal system, hard in texture, insoluble in water, slightly soluble in sulfuric acid and hydrofluoric acid, soluble in a mixed solution of hydrofluoric acid and nitric acid; Extremely stable chemical properties; Having excellent physical and chemical properties, such as high hardness, high melting point, good conductivity and thermal shock resistance, good chemical corrosion resistance, high oxidation resistance, and certain catalytic performance; Main applications: (1) In hard alloys, it is widely used as an additive, mainly to improve the high-temperature strength of hard alloys and suppress the growth of tungsten carbide particles. (2) In cutting tools, it serves as a hard coating to increase the chemical corrosion resistance and wear resistance of the base metal. (3) In military applications, it can be used as a coating for jet engine turbine blades and rocket nozzles to significantly improve their ablation resistance and extend their service life. (4) Due to its good conductivity. Therefore, it can be used as electrode material and can also be cut into complex shapes using electric spark wire cutting. (5) As the second phase particle reinforced metal matrix composite have been widely used in aerospace, metallurgy, building materials, power, hydropower, mining and other fields.

4. Vanadium carbide (VC) Vanadium carbide is a commonly used material in the metallurgical and chemical industries, mainly composed of C and V. In addition, there are also small amounts of impurities such as Mo, Ni, and Fe present. Due to its unique properties, vanadium carbide has been widely used in metallurgy, electronics, catalysts, and other fields. For example, vanadium carbide can be used in structural steel, tool steel, pipeline steel, steel bars, ordinary engineering, and cast iron. Research has shown that adding vanadium carbide to steel can improve its comprehensive mechanical properties such as wear resistance, corrosion resistance, toughness, strength, ductility and hardness, as well as thermal fatigue resistance. It also makes the steel have good weldability and can eliminate the extension of inclusions. Vanadium carbide can be used as the grain inhibitor of ultra-fine cemented carbides. The addition of trace VC can significantly improve the hardness and fracture toughness of the base alloy, and prevent the growth of WC grains in cemented carbides; Adding vanadium carbide can also increase the lifespan of hard alloys by 20%. Vanadium carbide has also been widely used in industrial fields such as high-temperature coatings and diamond synthesis using carbon sources.

5. zirconium carbide (ZrC) zirconium carbide is an important high-temperature structural material with high strength, corrosion resistance and good chemical stability, and its relative density is 6.73. Insoluble in cold water and hydrochloric acid, soluble in oxidizing acids, aqua regia, and hydrofluoric acid, easily soluble in molten caustic soda. Although it does not decompose even when it is red hot or in contact with water, it burns in oxygen during red heat. Fine powder can easily cause sparks and also react with chlorine, bromine, iodine, and nitrogen to form halides or nitrides. Zirconium carbide is a kind of high melting point material with high hardness and excellent high temperature refractory. It is a raw material of solid propellant in rocket motors. It can be used to produce alloy steel as a raw material for producing metallic zirconium and zirconium tetrachloride, and is a highly promising fine ceramic material. It can be used as a white hot filament, mainly as an abrasive, and also as a raw material for hard alloys.

6. Tungsten Carbide (WC) Tungsten carbide is a black gray crystal with a hexagonal structure. Due to its high hardness, wear resistance, and high melting point, it is widely used as a hard alloy in cutting tools, micro drills in the electronic industry, precision molds, and medical instruments. The main applications include: (1) for the manufacturing of wear-resistant components, resistance components, alloy ceramics, and carburized steel tools; (2) It is used to replace platinum and other precious metals as catalysts in some organic reaction, such as catalytic hydrogenation/dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons, isomerization of hydrocarbons, synthesis of hydrocarbons, decomposition of hydrazine, oxidation reaction and catalytic performance in ammonia synthesis; (3) As an electrocatalyst, it exhibits excellent catalytic oxidation performance for hydrogen, water, and methanol oxidation; (4) As the basic raw material for ultrafine hard alloys, ultrafine hard alloys have shown broad application prospects in fields such as difficult to machine metal material tools, micro drills in the electronic industry, precision molds, and medical dental drills; (5) Used for high wear resistant components such as cutting tools, seals, and bearings; (6) Applied as an electrode in fields such as electrochemical catalysis and fuel cells; (7) Tungsten carbide nanowires have excellent field emission performance, as well as high resolution and excellent oxidation resistance, and are used as probes for scanning tunneling electron microscopy (STM) and field emission electrical devices.

7. Silicon carbide (SiC) Silicon carbide (Sic), also known as carborundum, is made by smelting quartz sand, petroleum coke (or coal coke), wood chips (adding salt when producing green silicon carbide) and other raw materials through resistance furnace at high temperature. Silicon carbide also exists in nature as a rare mineral, moissanite. Silicon carbide, also known as carborundum, is a widely used and economical type of non oxide high-tech refractory raw materials such as C, N, and B. It can be referred to as steel sand or refractory sand.

Silicon carbide mainly has four major application fields, namely functional ceramics, advanced refractory materials, abrasives, and metallurgical raw materials. The coarse silicon carbide material can already be supplied in large quantities and cannot be considered a high-tech product, while the application of nanoscale silicon carbide powder with extremely high technological content cannot form economies of scale in a short period of time.

8. Boron carbide (B ₄ C) Boron carbide is a non-metallic material with important physical and chemical properties. After boron nitride (B ₄ C), it is a hard boron compound. Its high melting point, low density, chemical inertness, and excellent thermal and electrical properties make it a new material for high-tech applications. Boron carbide can also be added to alumina ceramics to improve the fracture toughness and relative strength of materials. Boron carbide is a high-temperature P-type semiconductor material with outstanding properties such as high hardness, low density, and high chemical inertness. At a high temperature of 1000 ℃, boron carbide can react with metals such as Fe, Ni, Ti, Zr, etc. Additionally, due to the strong ability of atoms to absorb neutrons, boron carbide has good applications in atomic physics and medicine. In addition, boron carbide has wide applications in microelectronics, nuclear physics, military, and space technology due to these properties.