Berzelius and Acheson

Jons Jacob Berzelius is mostly known for his discovery of Si however, he was the first person who more than likely synthesized SiC. In 1824 he published a paper where he speculated that there was a chemical bond between Si and carbide (C) in 

The Acheson process sometimes also includes sawdust and salt in lesser amounts together with the coke and silica. The sawdust creates channels that help impurities escape and the salt creates free chorine, which reacts with metal impurities that become volatile. Thus, the means to purify synthetic SiC have been employed since the beginning. 

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