Electrical Explosion of Silicon Rod in Distilled Water.

Silicon, a nonmetallic material that cannot be exploded by wire explosion in a gaseous atmosphere, was successfully exploded in distilled water. The explosion features of the Si rod were very similar to those of metal wires. The energies deposited in a single rod were estimated using the current drop and rise points in the discharge waveform, and they found to be in good agreement with the thermodynamic data for the vaporization and ionization energies of silicon, respectively. The particles produced by the explosion have a spherical shape with a range of 20 to 200 nm diameter for nanosized SiO₂ powder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]