At this time it was also observed that the material would glow and change colour on application of an electric current, meaning it is also an early forerunner of the light emitting diode. The first decade of the twentieth century saw SiC used as detector diodes for early crystal radio sets, which in theory makes it the first commercially important semiconductor material. In more recent years SiC has also been used as the basis for long-lasting ceramics used in automotive brakes and clutches. Thanks to the hardness of the new compound – which, until the invention of boron carbide in 1929 was the hardest known synthetic material – the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw SiC very quickly became popular on an industrial scale as a highly effective abrasive, an application for which it is still used today. In the following years Acheson patented his method for making silicon carbide powder and also developed the technology that is still used today to create SiC by reducing silica with carbon at high temperatures in an electric furnace. Acheson had accidentally discovered SiC, which he named carborundum, while looking for a way to produce artificial diamonds. However, two years previous to this, American inventor Edward G.

Silicon carbide does occur in nature as an extremely rare mineral known as moissanite, which was first found in 1893 in Arizona’s Canyon Diablo meteor crater.

Silicon carbide devices