Quartz glass types and main uses

1. Types of quartz glass:

From the appearance, quartz glass can be divided into two categories: transparent and opaque. Transparent quartz glass can be divided into ordinary quartz glass, high-purity quartz glass and doped quartz glass.

According to the product shape, it can be divided into tubes, rods, plates, crucibles, bell jars and lamp products, as well as quartz glass fiber and quartz wool.

From the special functions, there are low-expansion quartz glass, radiation-resistant quartz glass, ultraviolet or infrared-transparent quartz glass, ultraviolet-filtering quartz glass, etc.

From the manufacturing method, quartz glass can also be divided into two categories, one is natural quartz glass and the other is synthetic quartz glass. Natural quartz glass is made of natural crystal or silica as raw material by high-temperature melting, while synthetic quartz glass is made of inorganic or organic silicon-containing liquid compounds (such as silicon tetrachloride) through flame hydrolysis synthesis process. Since synthetic quartz glass is purer and of better quality than quartz glass made from natural raw materials, it is also called high-purity quartz glass, and natural quartz glass is also called ordinary quartz glass.

2. Main uses of quartz glass:

Since quartz glass has a series of special properties that cannot be replaced by other materials, the technical fields involved in the application of quartz glass are very wide:

(1) Since quartz glass has excellent high temperature resistance, it is widely used in equipment that requires high temperature resistance in industries such as metallurgy and chemical industry.

(2) It is widely used in the nuclear industry and aerospace fields. The observation windows and insulation shells of rockets and spacecraft are made of quartz glass.

(3) Since the chemical stability of quartz glass at high temperatures is unmatched by other engineering materials, it is widely used in industries such as chemical industry and pharmaceutical industry.

(4) Since quartz glass is resistant to high temperatures and has high transmittance, it is widely used in high-tech fields such as national defense and military industry and new electric light sources.

(5) Since quartz glass has excellent spectral characteristics, it can transmit not only visible light, but also infrared and ultraviolet rays. Therefore, it is widely used in microelectronics, information, lasers and astronomy. Optical fibers are made of quartz glass.

(6) Since small-diameter transparent or opaque quartz glass tubes manufactured by continuous melting process are low-cost but high-temperature resistant, they are widely used in the electric light source industry and far-infrared heaters that do not require high quality quartz glass.

(7) Due to its high purity, high temperature resistance, low thermal expansion and other excellent properties, quartz glass is widely used in the production of the electronics industry. For example, quartz glass diffusion tubes used in key processes such as doping, diffusion, oxidation and annealing of single crystal silicon wafers; quartz bell jars used in silicon wafer epitaxy processes; flower baskets and brackets used in silicon wafer pickling and ultrasonic cleaning processes; silicon wafer carriers (quartz glass boats) used in silicon wafer diffusion processes; quartz crucibles used in single crystal silicon pulling processes are all made of quartz glass.

(8) In order to prevent pollution and improve product purity, the distillation towers, volatilizers (bubblers) and feed pipes used in polysilicon production are mostly made of quartz glass.