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carborundum
Silicon carbide (SiC, see silicon and carbide), a black, cubic crystalline solid, made by heating coke with silica in an electric furnace. It is almost as hard as diamond (whose structure it resembles), and hence it is used as an abrasive in grinding wheels, grinding papers, and abrasive grains. Carborundum is inert, refractory, and a good heat conductor, so is also used in making high-temperature bricks. At high temperatures it is a semiconductor.
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