Silicon is similar to glass in that it is strong but brittle and prone to chipping.
Given that silicon is similar to carbon, particularly in its valency, some have pondered over the possibility of silicon-based life.
Given its importance in semiconductors and high-tech devices, its name has been used for the high-tech region known as Silicon Valley in California.
Silica occurs in minerals consisting of (practically) pure silicon dioxide in different crystalline forms.
Historically, a number of methods have been used to produce high-purity silicon.
The silicon produced via this process is called "metallurgical grade silicon" and is at least 98 percent pure.
Silicon also occurs as silicates (various minerals containing silicon, oxygen, and one or other metal).
The electronic configuration in the outermost shell of a silicon atom is the same as that of a carbon atom—both types of atoms have four bonding electrons.
Silicon has many known isotopes, with mass numbers ranging from 22 to 44.
Some bacteria and other forms of life, such as the protozoa radiolaria, have silicon dioxide skeletons, and the sea urchin has spines made of silicon dioxide.
In 1811, Gay-Lussac and Louis Jacques Thйnard probably prepared impure amorphous silicon through the heating of potassium with silicon tetrafluoride.
Trichlorosilane is the silicon compound most commonly used as the intermediate, although silicon tetrachloride and silane are also used.
Consequently, another solvent would be necessary to sustain silicon-based life forms.
Silicon is usually found in the form of silicon dioxide (also known as silica), and silicate.
Today, silicon is instead purified by converting it to a silicon compound that can be more easily purified than silicon itself, and then converting that silicon element back into pure silicon.
Elemental silicon has a gray color and a metallic luster, which increases with the size of the crystal.
When crushed, the silicon cracked so that the weaker impurity-rich regions were on the outside of the resulting grains of silicon.
The use of silicon in semiconductor devices demands a much greater purity than afforded by metallurgical grade silicon.
Silicon is a principal component of aerolites, which are a class of meteoroids, and also is a component of tektites, a natural form of glass.
In 2005, metallurgical grade silicon cost about $ 0.77 per pound ($1.70/kg).
Some have construed silicon-based life as existing under a computational substrate.
Silicon is also used in mechanical seals, caulking compounds, and high-temperature, silicon-based greases.
The majority of silicon crystals grown for device production are produced by the Czochralski process (CZ-Si), because it is the cheapest method available and is capable of producing large crystals.
Liquid silicon collects in the bottom of the furnace, and is then drained and cooled.
Silicon's inability to readily form multiple bonds, long silane chains, and rings severely limits the diversity of compounds that can be synthesized from it.
Measured by mass, silicon makes up 25.7 percent of the Earth's crust and is the second most abundant element on Earth, after oxygen.
The name silicon is derived from the Latin word, silex, meaning "flint" or "hard stone," corresponding to the materials now called "silica" or "silicates."
Pure silicon crystals are only occasionally found in nature; they can be found as inclusions with gold and in volcanic exhalations.
Sand, amethyst, agate, quartz, rock crystal, chalcedony, flint, jasper, and opal are some of the forms in which silicon dioxide appears.
Some silicon rings (cyclosilanes) have been synthesized and are analogous to the cycloalkanes formed by carbon, but the cyclosilanes are rare whereas the cycloalkanes are common.
Larger silicon compounds (silanes) that are analogous to common hydrocarbon chains are generally unstable, owing to the larger atomic radius of silicon and the correspondingly weaker silicon-silicon bond.
Silicon is commercially prepared by the reaction of high-purity silica with wood, charcoal, and coal, in an electric arc furnace using carbon electrodes.
Silica occurs in minerals consisting of (practically) pure silicon dioxide in different crystalline forms.
Given that some properties of silicon are similar to those of carbon, some individuals have proposed the possibility of silicon-based living organisms.
Early silicon purification techniques were based on the fact that if silicon is melted and re-solidified, the last parts of the mass to solidify contain most of the impurities.
In zone melting, also called zone refining, the first silicon purification method to be widely used industrially, rods of metallurgical grade silicon are heated to melt at one end.
Silicon (chemical element symbol Si, atomic number 14) is a member of a group of chemical elements classified as metalloids.
Under known conditions, silicon chemistry simply cannot begin to approach the diversity of organic chemistry, a crucial factor in carbon's role in biology.
When these gases are blown over silicon at high temperature, they decompose to high-purity silicon.
Today, all the dislocation-free silicon crystals used in semiconductor industry with diameter 300mm or larger are grown by the Czochralski method, with purity level significantly improved.
The electrical resistance of single-crystal silicon significantly changes under the application of mechanical stress, due to what is called the "piezoresistive effect."
Jacob Berzelius is typically credited with discovering silicon in 1824. It is the eighth most abundant element in the universe by weight. It is almost never found as a pure free element naturally. Silicon makes up slightly more than 27% of the Earth's crust.
In fact, it is dirt: Almost all kinds of sand, clay and rock contain silica in one form or another, and overall more than half the Earth's crust is made of silica. Industrially, silica is converted to pure silicon by heating it with coke (the form of coal, not the drink) in a furnace.Oct 17, 2005
Silicon is the seventh most abundant element in the universe and the second most abundant element in the earth's crust. Today, silicon is produced by heating sand (SiO2) with carbon to temperatures approaching 2200°C. Two allotropes of silicon exist at room temperature: amorphous and crystalline.
Some people take silicon by mouth for weak bones (osteoporosis), heart disease and stroke (cardiovascular disease), Alzheimer's disease, hair loss, and improving hair and nail quality. It is also used for skin healing and for treating sprains and strains, as well as digestive system disorders.
Silicon dust has little adverse affect on lungs and does not appear to produce significant organic disease or toxic effects when exposures are kept beneath exposure limits. Silicon may cause chronic respiratory effects. Crystalline silica (silicon dioxide) is a potent respiratory hazard.
Silicon is a chemical element with symbol Si and atomic number 14. A hard and brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic lustre, it is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic table, along with carbon above it and germanium, tin, and lead below.
Silicon makes up 27.7% of the Earth's crust by mass and is the second most abundant element (oxygen is the first). It does not occur uncombined in nature but occurs chiefly as the oxide (silica) and as silicates. The oxide includes sand, quartz, rock crystal, amethyst, agate, flint and opal.
They look metallic, but conduct electricity only intermediately well. Silicon is a semiconductor, meaning that it does conduct electricity. Unlike a typical metal, however, silicon gets better at conducting electricity as the temperature increases (metals get worse at conductivity at higher temperatures).Sep 16, 2014
Silicon is a semiconductor I.e. it can conduct electricity as well as behave as an insulator by varying it's properties. ... The conductivity of silicon lies between the conductivity limits of conductors and insulators. And the energy gap offered in these are accordingly present.
Reaction of silicon with acids. Silicon does not react with most acids under normal conditions but is dissolved by hydrofluoric acid, HF, a reaction apparently deiven by the stability of the Si(IV) fluoride complex [SiF6]2-.
A semimetal or a metalloid is a chemical element. Metalloids are elements that have the propeties of both metal and non-metal elements. ... Silicon has electrical conductivity between metals and nonmetals. It is a semiconductor.