Silicon why named

Silicon halides can easily be made to give up their silicon via specific chemical reactions that result in the formation of pure silicon. Silicon is a vital component of modern day industry.

Its abundance makes it all the more useful. Silicon can be found in products ranging from concrete to computer chips. The high tech sectors adoption of the title Silicon Valley underscores the importance of silicon in modern day technology. Pure silicon, that is essentially pure silicon, has the unique ability of being able to discretely control the number and charge of the current that passes through it.

This makes silicon play a role of utmost importance in devices such as transistors, solar cells, integrated circuits, microprocessors, and semiconductor devices, where such current control is a necessity for proper performance. Semiconductors exemplify silicon's use in contemporary technology. Semiconductors are unique materials that have neither the electrical conductivity of a conductor nor of an insulator.

Semiconductors lie somewhere in between these two classes giving them a very useful property. Semiconductors are able to manipulate electric current. They are used to rectify, amplify, and switch electrical signals and are thus integral components of modern day electronics. Semiconductors can be made out of a variety of materials, but the majority of semiconductors are made out of silicon. But semiconductors are not made out of silicates, or silanes, or silicones, they are made out pure silicon, that is essentially pure silicon crystal.

Like carbon, silicon can make a diamond like crystal. This structure is called a silicon lattice. However, this silicon lattice is essentially an insulator, as there are no free electrons for any charge movement, and is therefore not a semiconductor. This crystalline structure is turned into a semiconductor when it is doped.

Doping refers to a process by which impurities are introduced into ultra pure silicon, thereby changing its electrical properties and turning it into a semiconductor. Doping turns pure silicon into a semiconductor by adding or removing a very very small amount of electrons, thereby making it neither an insulator nor a conductor, but a semiconductor with limited charge conduction.

Subtle manipulation of pure silicon lattices via doping generates the wide variety of semiconductors that modern day electrical technology requires. Semiconductors are made out of silicon for two fundamental reasons. Silicon has the properties needed to make semiconductors, and silicon is the second most abundant element on earth. Glass is another silicon derivate that is widely utilized by modern day society. If sand, a silica deposit, is mixed with sodium and calcium carbonate at temperatures near degrees Celsius, when the resulting product cools, glass forms.

Glass is a particularly interesting state of silicon. Glass is unique because it represents a solid non-crystalline form of silicon.

The tetrahedral silica elements bind together, but in no fundamental pattern behind the bonding. The end result of this unique chemical structure is the often brittle typically optically transparent material known as glass. This silica complex can be found virtually anywhere human civilization is found.

Glass can be tainted by adding chemical impurities to the basal silica structure. Modern fiber optic cables must relay data via undistorted light signals over vast distances. To undertake this task, fiber optic cables must be made of special ultra-high purity glass. The secret behind this ultra-high purity glass is ultra pure silica. To make fiber optic cables meet operational standards, the impurity levels in the silica of these fiber optic cables has been reduced to parts per billion. This level of purity allows for the vast communications network that our society has come to take for granted.

Silicon plays an integral role in the construction industry. Silicon, specifically silica, is a primary ingredient in building components such as bricks, cement, ceramics, and tiles. Additionally, silicates, especially quartz, are very thermodynamically stable.

This translates to silicon ceramics having high heat tolerance. This property makes silicon ceramics particularily useful from things ranging from space ship hulls to engine components.

Silicone polymers represent another facet of silicon's usefulness. Silicone polymers are generally characterized by their flexibility, resistance to chemical attack, impermeability to water, and their ability to retain their properties at both high and low temperatures.

This array of properties makes silicone polymers very useful. Silicone polymers are used in insulation, cookware, high temperature lubricants, medical equipment, sealants, adhesives, and even as an alternative to plastic in toys. This is where the artist explains his interpretation of the element and the science behind the picture. Where the element is most commonly found in nature, and how it is sourced commercially. Atomic radius, non-bonded Half of the distance between two unbonded atoms of the same element when the electrostatic forces are balanced.

These values were determined using several different methods. Covalent radius Half of the distance between two atoms within a single covalent bond. Values are given for typical oxidation number and coordination. Electron affinity The energy released when an electron is added to the neutral atom and a negative ion is formed. Electronegativity Pauling scale The tendency of an atom to attract electrons towards itself, expressed on a relative scale.

First ionisation energy The minimum energy required to remove an electron from a neutral atom in its ground state. The oxidation state of an atom is a measure of the degree of oxidation of an atom.

It is defined as being the charge that an atom would have if all bonds were ionic. Uncombined elements have an oxidation state of 0. The sum of the oxidation states within a compound or ion must equal the overall charge. Data for this section been provided by the British Geological Survey. An integrated supply risk index from 1 very low risk to 10 very high risk. This is calculated by combining the scores for crustal abundance, reserve distribution, production concentration, substitutability, recycling rate and political stability scores.

The percentage of a commodity which is recycled. A higher recycling rate may reduce risk to supply. The availability of suitable substitutes for a given commodity. The percentage of an element produced in the top producing country. The higher the value, the larger risk there is to supply. The percentage of the world reserves located in the country with the largest reserves. A percentile rank for the political stability of the top producing country, derived from World Bank governance indicators.

A percentile rank for the political stability of the country with the largest reserves, derived from World Bank governance indicators. Specific heat capacity is the amount of energy needed to change the temperature of a kilogram of a substance by 1 K. A measure of the stiffness of a substance. It provides a measure of how difficult it is to extend a material, with a value given by the ratio of tensile strength to tensile strain. A measure of how difficult it is to deform a material.

It is given by the ratio of the shear stress to the shear strain. A measure of how difficult it is to compress a substance. It is given by the ratio of the pressure on a body to the fractional decrease in volume. A measure of the propensity of a substance to evaporate. It is defined as the equilibrium pressure exerted by the gas produced above a substance in a closed system.

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Nor shall the RSC be in any event liable for any damage to your computer equipment or software which may occur on account of your access to or use of the Site, or your downloading of materials, data, text, software, or images from the Site, whether caused by a virus, bug or otherwise. Jump to main content. Periodic Table. Glossary Allotropes Some elements exist in several different structural forms, called allotropes. Allotropes amorphous Si, crystalline Si. Glossary Group A vertical column in the periodic table.

Fact box. Glossary Image explanation Murray Robertson is the artist behind the images which make up Visual Elements. Appearance The description of the element in its natural form.

Biological role The role of the element in humans, animals and plants. Natural abundance Where the element is most commonly found in nature, and how it is sourced commercially. Uses and properties. Image explanation. The image is based on a diatom. Diatoms are photosynthesising algae.

They are unique in that their cell walls are made of silica hydrated silicon dioxide. The element, when ultrapure, is a solid with a blue-grey metallic sheen. 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 used in various ways in solar cells and computer chips, with one example being a metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor, or MOSFET, the basic switch in many electronics. To make silicon into a transistor, the crystalline form of the element is adulterated with trace amounts of other elements, such as boron or phosphorous, according to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The trace elements bond with the silicon atoms, freeing up electrons to move throughout the material, according to the University of Virginia.

By creating spaces of unadulterated silicon, engineers can create a gap where these electrons can't flow — like a switch in the "off" position. To turn the switch to "on," a metal plate, connected to a power source, is placed near the crystal. When the electricity flows, the plate becomes positively charged. Electrons, which are negatively charged, are drawn to the positive charge, allowing them to make the leap across the pure-silicon segment.

Other semiconductors besides silicon can be used in transistors, as well. Today's silicon research sounds just short of sci-fi: In , researchers announced they had created a computer chip that melded silicon components with brain cells. Electrical signals from the brain cells could be transmitted to the electronic silicon components of the chip, and vice versa.

The hope is to eventually create electronic devices to treat neurological disorders. A study appearing in Nature tests a new type of quantum device made from silicon. Skip to content. Lam Blog. May 31, Industry.