A study of silicon carbide synthesis from waste serpentine

There are 60 000 tons of serpentine wastes produced in year 2004 in Taiwan. This is due to the well-developed joints in the serpentine ore body as well as the stringent requirements of the particle size and chemical composition of serpentine by iron making company. The waste also creates considerable environmental problems. The purpose of this study is reutilization of waste serpentine to produce a high value silica powder after acid leaching. These siliceous microstructure products obtained from serpentine would be responsible for high reactivity and characteristic molecular sieving effect. In this study, the amorphous silica powder was then synthesized to silicon carbide with the C/SiO2 molar ratio of 3. The experiment results show that silicon carbide can be synthesized in 1550 °C. The formed silicon carbide was whisker β type SiC which can be used as raw materials for industry.