Why is the cost of silicon nitride ceramics so high?

Overview of Silicon Nitride Si3N4

Silicon nitride Si3N4 is an inorganic substance with the chemical formula Si3N4. It is an important structural ceramic material with high hardness, inherent lubricity, wear resistance, atomic crystals and high temperature oxidation resistance. Silicon nitride is an inorganic substance with the chemical formula Si3N4. It is an important structural ceramic material with high hardness, inherent lubricity and wear resistance. It is an atomic crystal; it is resistant to oxidation at high temperatures. Moreover, it can resist the effects of cold and heat. If it is heated to above 1000°C in the air, cooled quickly, and then heated quickly, it will not break. It is precisely because of the excellent characteristics of silicon nitride ceramics that people often use it to manufacture mechanical parts such as bearings, turbine blades, mechanical seal rings, permanent molds and so on. If the heating surface of the engine parts is made of high temperature resistant silicon nitride ceramics that is not easy to transfer heat, it will not only improve the engine quality, but also save fuel.

Silicon nitride Si3N4has a unique grain structure, high strength, high toughness and very good heat resistance. It is ideal for applications with high dynamic stress, thermal stress and high reliability requirements. This unique combination of material properties has advantages in harsh environment applications such as turbines and high-end ball bearings. Wear resistance, corrosion resistance, high mechanical strength and toughness, electrical insulation, thermal shock resistance.

Application of Silicon Nitride Si3N4

1) Manufacturing structural equipment: metallurgy, machinery, aviation, aerospace, etc.

2) Surface treatment of metals and other materials: such as molds, knives, turbine blades.

3) Composite materials: such as metal, ceramic and graphite composite materials, rubber, and plastics.

4) Colorless, transparent, self-lubricating and wear-resistant nano-particle film, used for high-level surface protection such as mobile phones and automobiles.

5) Ball bearings.

6) Ball valves and parts.

7) Corrosion resistant turbine.

Other applications of silicon nitride Si3N4

Silicon nitride Si3N4 is used as a high-grade refractory material. For example, SI3N4-SIC refractory materials and sic are used in blast furnace bodies and other parts, and SI3N4-BN materials and BN are used in horizontal continuous casting separation rings. The continuous casting separation ring is a fine-structure ceramic material with uniform structure, high mechanical strength, good thermal shock resistance, and will not be wetted by molten steel, which meets the requirements of continuous casting process

Silicon nitride Si3N4 ceramic material has excellent properties such as high thermal stability, strong oxidation resistance, and high product dimensional accuracy. Since silicon nitride is a covalent compound with high bonding strength, it can form an oxide protective film in the air, so it also has good chemical stability and will not be oxidized below 1200°C. The protective film formed at 1200~1600°C can prevent further oxidation and will not be affected by aluminum, lead, tin, silver, brass, and nickel. Or corrosion, but can be corroded by molten magnesium, nickel-chromium alloy, stainless steel and other melts.

Silicon nitride Si3N4 ceramic materials can be used for high-temperature engineering parts, advanced refractories in the metallurgical industry, corrosion-resistant parts and seals in the chemical industry, tools and knives in the machining industry, etc. Carbide, aluminum oxide, thorium dioxide, boron nitride, etc. can form a firm bond, so it can be used as a bonding material to be modified in different proportions.

In addition, silicon nitride Si3N4 can also be applied to solar cells. After the silicon nitride film is coated by the PECVD method, it can not only be used as an anti-reflection film to reduce the reflection of incident light, but also in the deposition process of the silicon nitride film, the hydrogen atoms of the reaction product enter the silicon nitride film and the silicon wafer passivation Defects. The ratio of the number of silicon nitride to silicon atoms here is not strictly 4:3, but depends on the process conditions within a certain range. Internal fluctuations, different atomic ratios correspond to different physical properties of the film.

Used in ultra-high temperature gas turbines, aircraft engines, electric furnaces, etc.

Although silicon nitride Si3N4 has good properties, it also has a common characteristic of ceramics—brittleness. Silicon nitride Si3N4 ceramic is a polycrystalline sintered body composed of crystal grains bonded by ions or covalent bonds. Highly oriented chemical bonds determine the low density of grain dislocations, less slip systems and low crack growth energy in ceramics. In the fracture process, besides the addition of new fracture surface energy, there is almost no other energy dissipation mechanism, which leads to shortcomings such as low strength and insufficient toughness. The fatal weakness of brittleness makes it impossible to guarantee reliability in applications. Therefore, improving its toughness and improving its reliability has always been an important research direction of silicon nitride ceramics.

Why is the cost of silicon nitride Si3N4 ceramic so high?

1. High powder cost.

Powder preparation requires high-purity silicon powder and nitrogen, and the nitriding process requires strict control of temperature, time and air pressure. The prepared powder can be ground with high energy. The whole process has high technical requirements. To achieve high purity, nano-scale particle size, and high phase purity ratio, the requirements for equipment, process and even quality management are very high.

2. Silicon nitride Si3N4 ceramics are expensive.

1) High sintering cost. Silicon nitride sintering generally has three methods: reaction sintering, pressureless sintering and pressure sintering. From the perspective of ceramic evaluation, the quality of the three methods has been improved sequentially. Each of these three methods has advantages. The higher the quality of ceramics, the higher the requirements for equipment, technology and management, and the higher the cost.

2) The processing cost is high. The hardness of silicon nitride is very high and it needs to be processed with diamond abrasives. If special shape processing is required, special equipment is required. Therefore, silicon nitride products are more expensive.

Silicon nitride Si3N4 price

The price of silicon nitride Si3N4 will vary randomly with the production cost ofsilicon nitride Si3N4, transportation cost, international situation, exchange rate and the supply and demand of silicon nitride Si3N4market. Tanki New Materials Co., Ltd. aims to help various industries and chemical wholesalers find high-quality, low-cost nanomaterials and chemicals by providing a full set of customized services. If you are looking for silicon nitride Si3N4, please feel free to send an inquiry to get the latest price of silicon nitride Si3N4.

Silicon nitride Si3N4 supplier

As a global silicon nitride Si3N4 supplier, Tanki New Materials Co., Ltd. has extensive experience in the performance, application and cost-effective manufacturing of advanced engineering materials. The company has successfully developed a series of powder materials (titanium nitride, silicon nitride, titanium nitride, etc.) high-purity targets, functional ceramics and structural devices, and provides OEM services.

Specification of Silicon Nitride Si3N4 Powder
Product Name:Silicon Nitride
Purity:99%
Particle Size:0.5um-1um (α phase)

Chemical Composition of Silicon Nitride Si3N4 Powder