Resources Recycling ISSN:2765-3439(Print) 2765-3447(Online) 자원리싸이클링

This study presents the carburization process for recycling sludge, which was formed during silicon wafer machining. The sludge used in the carburization process is a mixture of silicon and silicon carbide (SiC) with iron as an impurity, which originates from the machine. Additionally, the sludge contains cutting oil, a fluid with high viscosity. Therefore, the sludge was dried before carburization to remove organic matter. The dried sludge was washed by acid cleaning to remove the iron impurity and subsequently carburized by heat treatment under vacuum to form the SiC powder. The ratio of silicon to SiC in the sludge was varied depending on the sources and thus carbon content was adjusted by the ratio. With increasing SiC content, the carbon content required for SiC formation increased. It was demonstrated that substoichiometric SiC_x (x<1) was easily formed when the carbon content was insufficient. Therefore, excess carbon is required to obtain a pure SiC phase. Moreover, size reduction by high-energy milling had a beneficial effect on the suppression of SiC_x, forming the pure SiC phase.