Industrial calcium silicide usually contains iron and aluminium as the primary contaminants, and low amounts of carbon and sulfur.

At ambient conditions calcium disilicide exists in two polymorphs, hR9 and hR18; in the hR18 structure the hR9 unit cell is stacked twice along the c axis.

In pyrotechnics, it is used as fuel to make special mixtures, e.g. for production of smokes, in flash compositions, and in percussion caps.

Silicon-based fuels are used in some time delay mixtures, e.g. for controlling of explosive bolts, hand grenades, and infrared decoys.

Self-heating cans of military food rations developed during WWII used a thermite-like mixture of 1:1 iron(II,III) oxide and calcium silicide.