Silicon ( , ) is the most common metalloid. It is a chemical element, which has the symbol Si and atomic number 14. The atomic mass is 28.0855. A tetravalent metalloid, silicon is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon. As the eighth most common element in the universe by mass, silicon very rarely occurs as the pure free element in nature, but is more widely distributed in dusts, planetoids and planets as various forms of silicon dioxide (silica) or silicates. On Earth, silicon is the second most abundant element (after oxygen) in the crust, making up 25.7% of the crust by mass.
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silicon is wonderfull semiconductor matrial which helps to give alternate energy source in form soler cells. But how impure si is converted into pure si .
silicon is wonderfull semiconductor matrial which helps to give alternate energy source in form soler cells. But how impure si is converted into pure si .
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Click the "Get Widget" button to add our widget to Facebook, iGoogle, your blog and more! ... ©Copyright Media News Group • Privacy Policy • Our Blogs ...blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/Silicon ( , ) is the most common metalloid. It is a chemical element, which has the symbol Si and atomic number 14. The atomic mass is 28.0855. A tetravalent metalloid, silicon is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon. As the eighth most common element in the universe by mass, silicon very rarely occurs as the pure free element in nature, but is more widely distributed in dusts, planetoids and planets as various forms of silicon dioxide (silica) or silicates. On Earth, silicon is the second most abundant element (after oxygen) in the crust, making up 25.7% of the crust by mass.
Silicon has many industrial uses. Elemental silicon is the principal component of most semiconductor devices, most importantly integrated circuits or microchips. Silicon is widely used in semiconductors because it remains a semiconductor at higher temperatures than the semiconductor germanium and because its native oxide is easily grown in a furnace and forms a better semiconductor/dielectric interface than any other material.
In the form of silica and silicates, silicon forms useful glasses, cements, and ceramics. It is also a constituent of silicones, a class-name for various synthetic plastic substances made of silicon, oxygen, carbon and hydrogen, often confused with silicon itself.
Silicon is an essential element in biology, although only tiny traces of it appear to be required by animalsFact: date=October 2008. It is much more important to the metabolism of plants, particularly many grasses, and silicic acid (a type of silica) forms the basis of the striking array of protective shells of the microscopic diatoms.
Notable characteristics
The outer electron orbitals (half filled subshell holding up to eight electrons) have the same structure as in carbon and the two elements are sometimes similar chemically. Even though it is a relatively inert element, silicon still reacts with halogens and dilute alkalis, but most acids (except for some hyper-reactive combinations of nitric acid and hydrofluoric acid) do not affect it. Having four bonding electrons however gives it, like carbon, many opportunities to combine with other elements or compounds under the right circumstances.
Both silicon and (in certain aspects) carbon are semiconductors, readily either donating or sharing their four outer electrons allowing many different forms of chemical bonding. Pure silicon has a negative temperature coefficient of resistance, since the number of free charge carriers increases with temperature. The electrical resistance of single crystal silicon significantly changes under the application of mechanical stress due to the piezoresistive effect.
In its crystalline form, pure silicon has a gray color and a metallic luster. It is similar to glass in that it is rather strong, very brittle, and prone to chipping.
History
Expand: date=February 2009 Silicon was first identified by Antoine Lavoisier in 1787 (as a component of the Latin silex , silicis for flint, flints), and was later mistaken by Humphry Davy in 1800 for a compound. In 1811 Gay-Lussac and Thénard probably prepared impure amorphous silicon through the heating of potassium with silicon tetrafluoride. In 1824, Berzelius prepared amorphous silicon using approximately the same method as Lussac. Berzelius also purified the product by repeatedly washing it.
