What is Calcium Carbide?
What is Calcium Carbide?
Calcium Carbide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula of CaC2. Its main use industrially is in the production of acetylene and calcium cyanamide.
The pure material is colorless, however pieces of technical-grade calcium carbide are grey or brown and consist of only 80-85% of CaC2 (the rest is CaO, Ca3P2, CaS, Ca3N2, SiC, etc.). Because of presence of PH3, NH3, and H2S, technical-grade calcium carbide has a distinctive smell which some find unpleasant.