With the rapid development of photovoltaic, semiconductor and industrial heat treatment industries, carbon / carbon (C / C) composites have become a breakthrough for large-scale application.
As a clean energy, photovoltaic power generation develops rapidly. In 2019, the new installed capacity of global photovoltaic will reach 120gw, a record high. Driven by the continuous decline of photovoltaic power generation costs and the pull of emerging markets, the global photovoltaic market will continue to grow rapidly. According to the forecast of the International Energy Agency (IEA), the cumulative installed capacity of global photovoltaic is expected to reach 1721gw by 2030, and will further increase to 4670gw by 2050, with huge development potential.
With the development of photovoltaic industry, traditional graphite materials are difficult to meet the large-scale needs of Czochralski silicon single crystal furnace and polycrystalline ingot furnace. The high-speed growth of photovoltaic market and the cost pressure of photovoltaic industry bring good opportunities for the development of C / C composite applications, and it is gradually forming the upgrading of graphite components in the thermal field system of crystalline silicon manufacturing.
C / C composites have the advantages of low density, high strength, high thermal conductivity, low coefficient of expansion, good thermal shock resistance and high dimensional stability, which make them become a few candidate materials for applications above 1650 ℃. The highest theoretical temperature is as high as 2600 ℃, so they are considered as one of the most promising high temperature materials. Compared with traditional graphite materials, C / C composites have better thermal insulation performance, higher strength, better toughness, and are not easy to break, which can effectively reduce production energy consumption, improve the service life of equipment, and reduce the cost of the whole production.
Compared with graphite thermal field materials, C / C composite thermal insulation parts, structural parts and heating body are the development direction of thermal field materials for photovoltaic equipment such as Czochralski silicon single crystal furnace and polycrystalline ingot furnace.
Silicon is the most important semiconductor material at present. More than 95% of the world's semiconductor chips and devices are produced with silicon wafer as the base functional material. In 2018, the sales volume of semiconductor silicon wafer was 11.708 billion US dollars, accounting for 36.78% of the global semiconductor material industry. Chinese mainland semiconductor silicon market development trend is consistent with global market. With China's semiconductor manufacturing technology and continuous improvement of semiconductor manufacturing line, semiconductor industry has entered a stage of rapid development.
Both photovoltaic and semiconductor industries have huge development space. In the future, with the continuous progress of industrial upgrading and cost reduction of photovoltaic and semiconductor industries, it is expected that advanced carbon based composites such as C / C will replace graphite materials and become the main materials for silicon-based thermal field system components in photovoltaic and semiconductor industries, with huge market space.
However, there are still many problems to be solved in the development of carbon / carbon composites industry: how to reduce the cost in the process of mass production? How to improve the level and capability of mass manufacturing? How to solve the problem of environmental protection? How to realize green manufacturing? How to realize the sustainable development of industry university research cooperation? How to strengthen the application research of carbon / carbon composites? How to explore and develop the potential application market of carbon / carbon composites? How to improve the R & D capability of enterprises in the field of carbon / carbon composites?
Source: DT new materials
Original title: noteworthy problems of carbon / Carbon Composites