Silicon is a chemical element; it has symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a non metal and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic table: carbon is above it; and germanium, tin, lead, and flerovium are below it. It is relatively unreactive.
Silicon is one of the most useful elements to mankind. Most is used to make alloys including aluminium-silicon and ferro-silicon (iron-silicon). These are used to make dynamo and transformer plates, engine blocks, cylinder heads and machine tools and to deoxidise steel. Silicon is also used to make silicones.
Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol "Si" and atomic number 14. It is a non-metal and belongs to the group of elements known as metalloids, which have properties that are intermediate between metals and non-metals. Silicon is abundant in the Earth's crust and is the second most abundant element after oxygen
A silicon atom has 14 electrons around the nucleus, and of these, there are 4 valence electrons on the outermost orbital. When this is made into a single crystal, it can be used as a material for semiconductor products. When it crystalizes, the nuclei share electrons and they bond with 8 electrons around each nucleus.
The name silicon derives from the Latin silex or silicis, meaning “flint” or “hard stone.” Amorphous elemental silicon was first isolated and described as an element in 1824 by Jöns Jacob Berzelius, a Swedish chemist. Impure silicon had already been obtained in 1811.
Crystalline elemental silicon was not prepared until 1854, when it was obtained as a product of electrolysis. In the form of rock crystal, however, silicon was familiar to the predynastic Egyptians, who used it for beads and small vases; to the early Chinese; and probably to many others of the ancients. The manufacture of glass containing silica was carried out both by the Egyptians—at least as early as 1500 BCE—and by the Phoenicians. Certainly, many of the naturally occurring compounds called silicates were used in various kinds of mortar for construction of dwellings by the earliest people.
Silicon is one of the most useful elements to mankind. Most is used to make alloys including aluminium-silicon and ferro-silicon (iron-silicon). These are used to make dynamo and transformer plates, engine blocks, cylinder heads and machine tools and to deoxidise steel. Silicon is also used to make silicones.
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.
Silicon's atomic structure makes it an extremely important semiconductor (see crystal: Electric properties), and silicon is the most important semiconductor in the electronics and technology sector.