Silicon is a
chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements cannot be broken down into simpler s ...
with the
symbol Si and
atomic number
The atomic number or nuclear charge number (symbol ''Z'') of a chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that speci ...
14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a
tetravalent metalloid
A metalloid is a type of chemical element which has a preponderance of properties in between, or that are a mixture of, those of metals and nonmetals. There is no standard definition of a metalloid and no complete agreement on which elements ...
and
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way ...
. It is a member of
group 14 in the periodic table:
carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetal
In chemistry, a nonmetal is a chemical element that generally lacks a predominance of metallic properties; they range from colorless gases (like ...
is above it; and
germanium,
tin
Tin is a chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements cann ...
,
lead
Lead is a chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements cann ...
, and
flerovium are below it. It is relatively unreactive.
Because of its high chemical affinity for oxygen, it was not until 1823 that
Jöns Jakob Berzelius was first able to prepare it and characterize it in pure form. Its
oxides form a family of
anion
An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge.
The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by co ...
s known as
silicates. Its melting and boiling points of 1414 °C and 3265 °C, respectively, are the second highest among all the metalloids and nonmetals, being surpassed only by
boron
Boron is a chemical element with the symbol B and atomic number 5. In its crystalline form it is a brittle, dark, lustrous metalloid
A metalloid is a type of chemical element which has a preponderance of properties in between, ...
.
Silicon is the eighth
most common element in the universe by mass, but very rarely occurs as the pure element in the Earth's crust. It is widely distributed in space in cosmic
dust
Dust is made of fine particles of solid matter. On Earth, it generally consists of particles in the atmosphere that come from various sources such as soil
Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic ...
s,
planetoids, and
planets as various forms of
silicon dioxide
Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is ...
(silica) or
silicates. More than 90% of the Earth's crust is composed of
silicate minerals, making silicon the
second most abundant element in the Earth's crust (about 28% by mass), after
oxygen
Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal
In chemistry, a nonmetal is a chemical element that generally la ...
.
Most silicon is used commercially without being separated, often with very little processing of the natural minerals. Such use includes industrial construction with
clays,
silica sand, and
stone. Silicates are used in
Portland cement for
mortar and
stucco
Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...
, and mixed with silica sand and
gravel
Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone.
Gravel is classif ...
to make
concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most ...
for walkways, foundations, and roads. They are also used in whiteware
ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...
s such as
porcelain
Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery
Potter ...
, and in traditional
silicate-based
soda-lime glass and many other specialty
glasses. Silicon compounds such as
silicon carbide
Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum (), is a hard chemical compound containing silicon and carbon. A semiconductor, it occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite, but has been mass-produced as a powder and crystal ...
are used as abrasives and components of high-strength ceramics. Silicon is the basis of the widely used synthetic polymers called
silicone
A silicone or polysiloxane is a polymer
A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + '' -mer'', "part")
is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their ...
s.
The late 20th century to early 21st century has been described as the Silicon Age (also known as the
Digital Age or
Information Age) because of the large impact that elemental silicon has on the modern world economy. The small portion of very highly purified elemental silicon used in
semiconductor electronics (<10%) is essential to the
transistors and
integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuit
An electronic circuit is composed of individual electronic components, such as resistors, transis ...
chips used in most modern technology such as
smartphone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, wh ...
s and other
computer
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These p ...
s. In 2019, 32.4% of the semiconductor market segment was for networks and communications devices, and the semiconductors industry is projected to reach $726.73 billion by 2027.
Silicon is an essential element in biology. Only traces are required by most animals, but some
sea sponges and microorganisms, such as
diatoms and
radiolaria, secrete skeletal structures made of silica. Silica is deposited in many plant tissues.
History
Owing to the abundance of silicon in the
Earth's crust
Earth's crust is Earth's thin outer shell of rock, referring to less than 1% of Earth's radius and volume. It is the top component of the lithosphere, a division of Earth's layers that includes the crust and the upper part of the mantle. ...
, natural silicon-based materials have been used for thousands of years. Silicon
rock crystals were familiar to various
ancient civilizations, such as the
predynastic Egyptians who used it for
beads and small
vases, as well as the
ancient Chinese.
Glass containing
silica was manufactured by the
Egyptians
Egyptians ( arz, المَصرِيُون, translit=al-Maṣriyyūn, ; arz, المَصرِيِين, translit=al-Maṣriyyīn, ; cop, ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, remenkhēmi) are an ethnic group native to the Nile, Nile Valley in Egypt. Egyptian ...
since at least 1500 BC, as well as by the ancient
Phoenicians. Natural
silicate compounds were also used in various types of
mortar for construction of early human
dwellings.
Discovery

In 1787,
Antoine Lavoisier suspected that
silica might be an oxide of a fundamental
chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements cannot be broken down into simpler s ...
, but the
chemical affinity of silicon for oxygen is high enough that he had no means to reduce the oxide and isolate the element. After an attempt to isolate silicon in 1808,
Sir Humphry Davy proposed the name "silicium" for silicon, from the Latin ''silex'', ''silicis'' for flint, and adding the "-ium" ending because he believed it to be a metal. Most other languages use transliterated forms of Davy's name, sometimes adapted to local phonology (e.g.
German ''Silizium'',
Turkish ''silisyum'',
Catalan ''silici'',
Armenian ''Սիլիցիում'' or ''Silitzioum''). A few others use instead a
calque
In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another languag ...
of the Latin root (e.g.
Russian ''кремний'', from ''кремень'' "flint";
Greek ''πυρίτιο'' from ''πυρ'' "fire";
Finnish ''pii'' from ''piikivi'' "flint",
Czech ''křemík'' from ''křemen'' "quartz", "flint").
Gay-Lussac and
Thénard are thought to have prepared impure
amorphous silicon in 1811, through the heating of recently isolated
potassium
Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K (from Neo-Latin '' kalium'') and atomic number19. Potassium is a silvery-white metal that is soft enough to be cut with a knife with little force. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmo ...
metal with
silicon tetrafluoride, but they did not purify and characterize the product, nor identify it as a new element. Silicon was given its present name in 1817 by Scottish chemist
Thomas Thomson. He retained part of Davy's name but added "-on" because he believed that silicon was a
nonmetal
In chemistry, a nonmetal is a chemical element that generally lacks a predominance of metallic properties; they range from colorless gases (like hydrogen) to shiny solids (like carbon, as graphite). The electrons in nonmetals behave diff ...
similar to
boron
Boron is a chemical element with the symbol B and atomic number 5. In its crystalline form it is a brittle, dark, lustrous metalloid
A metalloid is a type of chemical element which has a preponderance of properties in between, ...
and
carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetal
In chemistry, a nonmetal is a chemical element that generally lacks a predominance of metallic properties; they range from colorless gases (like ...
. In 1824,
Jöns Jacob Berzelius
Baron Jöns Jacob Berzelius (; by himself and his contemporaries named only Jacob Berzelius, 20 August 1779 – 7 August 1848) was a Swedish chemist. Berzelius is considered, along with Robert Boyle, John Dalton, and Antoine Lavoisier, to be ...
prepared amorphous silicon using approximately the same method as Gay-Lussac (reducing
potassium fluorosilicate with molten potassium metal), but purifying the product to a brown powder by repeatedly washing it. As a result, he is usually given credit for the element's discovery. The same year, Berzelius became the first to prepare
silicon tetrachloride;
silicon tetrafluoride had already been prepared long before in 1771 by
Carl Wilhelm Scheele by dissolving silica in
hydrofluoric acid.
Silicon in its more common crystalline form was not prepared until 31 years later, by
Deville. By
electrolyzing a mixture of
sodium chloride
Sodium chloride , commonly known as salt
Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as ro ...
and
aluminium chloride containing approximately 10% silicon, he was able to obtain a slightly impure
allotrope
Allotropy or allotropism () is the property of some chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike ...
of silicon in 1854. Later, more cost-effective methods have been developed to isolate several allotrope forms, the most recent being
silicene in 2010.
Meanwhile, research on the chemistry of silicon continued;
Friedrich Wöhler discovered the first volatile hydrides of silicon, synthesising
trichlorosilane in 1857 and
silane itself in 1858, but a detailed investigation of the
silanes was only carried out in the early 20th century by
Alfred Stock, despite early speculation on the matter dating as far back as the beginnings of synthetic organic chemistry in the 1830s. Similarly, the first
organosilicon compound
Organosilicon compounds are organometallic compounds containing carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetal
In chemistry, a nonmetal is a chemical element that generally lacks a pr ...
, tetraethylsilane, was synthesised by
Charles Friedel and
James Crafts in 1863, but detailed characterisation of organosilicon chemistry was only done in the early 20th century by
Frederic Kipping.
Starting in the 1920s, the work of
William Lawrence Bragg on
X-ray crystallography
X-ray crystallography is the experimental science determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal
A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a ...
successfully elucidated the compositions of the silicates, which had previously been known from
analytical chemistry but had not yet been understood, together with
Linus Pauling
Linus Carl Pauling (; February 28, 1901August 19, 1994) was an American chemist, biochemist, chemical engineer, peace activist, author, and educator. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific ...
's development of
crystal chemistry and
Victor Goldschmidt's development of
geochemistry. The middle of the 20th century saw the development of the chemistry and industrial use of
siloxanes and the growing use of
silicone
A silicone or polysiloxane is a polymer
A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + '' -mer'', "part")
is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their ...
polymer
A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + '' -mer'', "part")
is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic ...
s,
elastomers, and
resins. In the late 20th century, the complexity of the crystal chemistry of
silicides was mapped, along with the
solid-state physics
Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental ...
of
doped semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way ...
s.
Silicon semiconductors
The first
semiconductor devices did not use silicon, but used
galena, including German
physicist Ferdinand Braun's
crystal detector in 1874 and Indian physicist
Jagadish Chandra Bose's
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referre ...
crystal detector in 1901.
The first silicon semiconductor device was a silicon radio crystal detector, developed by American engineer
Greenleaf Whittier Pickard in 1906.
In 1940,
Russell Ohl discovered the
p–n junction and
photovoltaic effects in silicon. In 1941, techniques for producing high-purity
germanium and
silicon crystals were developed for
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft
A spacecraft is a vehicle ...
microwave
Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength
In physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related en ...
detector crystals during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
.
In 1947, physicist
William Shockley theorized a
field-effect amplifier made from germanium and silicon, but he failed to build a working device, before eventually working with germanium instead. The first working transistor was a
point-contact transistor built by
John Bardeen and
Walter Brattain later that year while working under Shockley. In 1954,
physical chemist Morris Tanenbaum fabricated the first silicon
junction transistor at
Bell Labs
Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984),
then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996)
and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007),
is an American industrial research and scientific development company
A com ...
. In 1955,
Carl Frosch and Lincoln Derick at Bell Labs accidentally discovered that
silicon dioxide
Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is ...
() could be grown on silicon,
and they later proposed this could mask silicon surfaces during
diffusion processes in 1958.
Silicon Age
The , also known as the MOS transistor, is the key component of the Silicon Age. It was invented by Mohamed M. Atalla">MOSFET, also known as the MOS transistor, is the key component of the Silicon Age. It was invented by Mohamed M. Atalla and Dawon Kahng at
Bell Labs
Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984),
then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996)
and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007),
is an American industrial research and scientific development company
A com ...
in 1959.
The "Silicon Age" refers to the late 20th century to early 21st century.
This is due to silicon being the dominant material of the Silicon Age (also known as the
Digital Age or
Information Age), similar to how the
Stone Age
The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with ...
,
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing
Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a langu ...
and
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
were defined by the dominant materials during their respective
ages of civilization.
Because silicon is an important element in high-technology semiconductor devices, many places in the world bear its name. For example,
Santa Clara Valley in California acquired the nickname
Silicon Valley, as the element is the base material in the
semiconductor industry
The semiconductor industry is the aggregate of companies engaged in the design and fabrication of semiconductors and semiconductor devices, such as transistors and integrated circuits. It formed around 1960, once the fabrication of semic ...
there. Since then, many other places have been dubbed similarly, including
Silicon Wadi in
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
,
Silicon Forest in
Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Id ...
,
Silicon Hills in
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (69 ...
,
Silicon Slopes in
Salt Lake City, Utah,
Silicon Saxony in Germany,
Silicon Valley in India,
Silicon Border in
Mexicali, Mexico,
Silicon Fen in
Cambridge, England,
Silicon Roundabout in London,
Silicon Glen in Scotland,
Silicon Gorge in
Bristol, England,
Silicon Alley in
New York, New York and
Silicon Beach in
Los Angeles, California.
Characteristics
Physical and atomic

A silicon atom has fourteen
electrons. In the ground state, they are arranged in the electron configuration
es
23p
2. Of these, four are
valence electron
In chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, s ...
s, occupying the 3s orbital and two of the 3p orbitals. Like the other members of its group, the lighter
carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetal
In chemistry, a nonmetal is a chemical element that generally lacks a predominance of metallic properties; they range from colorless gases (like ...
and the heavier
germanium,
tin
Tin is a chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements cann ...
, and
lead
Lead is a chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements cann ...
, it has the same number of valence electrons as valence orbitals: hence, it can complete its
octet
Octet may refer to:
Music
* Octet (music), ensemble consisting of eight instruments or voices, or composition written for such an ensemble
** String octet, a piece of music written for eight string instruments
*** Octet (Mendelssohn), 1825 com ...
and obtain the stable
noble gas
The noble gases (historically also the inert gases; sometimes referred to as aerogens) make up a class of chemical elements with similar properties; under standard conditions, they are all odorless, colorless, monatomic gases with very low c ...
configuration of
argon
Argon is a chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements c ...
by forming
sp3 hybrid orbitals, forming tetrahedral derivatives where the central silicon atom shares an electron pair with each of the four atoms it is bonded to.
The first four
ionisation energies of silicon are 786.3, 1576.5, 3228.3, and 4354.4 kJ/mol respectively; these figures are high enough to preclude the possibility of simple cationic chemistry for the element. Following
periodic trends, its single-bond covalent radius of 117.6 pm is intermediate between those of carbon (77.2 pm) and germanium (122.3 pm). The hexacoordinate ionic radius of silicon may be considered to be 40 pm, although this must be taken as a purely notional figure given the lack of a simple cation in reality.
Electrical
At standard temperature and pressure, silicon is a shiny
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way ...
with a bluish-grey metallic lustre; as typical for semiconductors, its resistivity drops as temperature rises. This arises because silicon has a small energy gap (
band gap) between its highest occupied energy levels (the valence band) and the lowest unoccupied ones (the conduction band). The
Fermi level is about halfway between the
valence and conduction bands and is the energy at which a state is as likely to be occupied by an electron as not. Hence pure silicon is effectively an insulator at room temperature. However,
doping
Doping may refer to:
* Doping, adding a dopant to something
* Doping (semiconductor), intentionally introducing impurities into an extremely pure semiconductor to change its electrical properties
* Aircraft dope, a lacquer that is applied to fa ...
silicon with a
pnictogen such as
phosphorus,
arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal
A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid ...
, or
antimony introduces one extra electron per dopant and these may then be excited into the conduction band either thermally or photolytically, creating an
n-type semiconductor. Similarly, doping silicon with a
group 13 element such as
boron
Boron is a chemical element with the symbol B and atomic number 5. In its crystalline form it is a brittle, dark, lustrous metalloid
A metalloid is a type of chemical element which has a preponderance of properties in between, ...
,
aluminium
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that speci ...
, or
gallium
Gallium is a chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements can ...
results in the introduction of acceptor levels that trap electrons that may be excited from the filled valence band, creating a
p-type semiconductor. Joining n-type silicon to p-type silicon creates a
p–n junction with a common Fermi level; electrons flow from n to p, while holes flow from p to n, creating a voltage drop. This p–n junction thus acts as a
diode
A diode is a two- terminal electronic component that conducts current primarily in one direction (asymmetric conductance); it has low (ideally zero) resistance in one direction, and high (ideally infinite) resistance in the other.
A dio ...
that can rectify alternating current that allows current to pass more easily one way than the other. A
transistor is an n–p–n junction, with a thin layer of weakly p-type silicon between two n-type regions. Biasing the emitter through a small forward voltage and the collector through a large reverse voltage allows the transistor to act as a
triode amplifier.
Crystal structure
Silicon crystallises in a giant covalent structure at standard conditions, specifically in a
diamond cubic lattice (
space group 227). It thus has a high melting point of 1414 °C, as a lot of energy is required to break the strong covalent bonds and melt the solid. Upon melting silicon contracts as the long-range tetrahedral network of bonds breaks up and the voids in that network are filled in, similar to water ice when hydrogen bonds are broken upon melting. It does not have any thermodynamically stable allotropes at standard pressure, but several other crystal structures are known at higher pressures. The general trend is one of increasing
coordination number with pressure, culminating in a
hexagonal close-packed allotrope at about 40
gigapascals known as Si–VII (the standard modification being Si–I). An allotrope called BC8 (or bc8), having a
body-centred cubic lattice with eight atoms per primitive unit cell (
space group 206), can be created at high pressure and remains metastable at low pressure. Its properties have been studied in detail.
Silicon boils at 3265 °C: this, while high, is still lower than the temperature at which its lighter congener
carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetal
In chemistry, a nonmetal is a chemical element that generally lacks a predominance of metallic properties; they range from colorless gases (like ...
sublimes (3642 °C) and silicon similarly has a lower
heat of vaporisation than carbon, consistent with the fact that the Si–Si bond is weaker than the C–C bond.
It is also possible to construct
silicene layers analogous to
graphene
Graphene () is an allotrope of carbon consisting of a Single-layer materials, single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice nanostructure. .
Isotopes
Naturally occurring silicon is composed of three stable
isotope
Isotopes are two or more types of atoms that have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms ...
s,
28Si (92.23%),
29Si (4.67%), and
30Si (3.10%). Out of these, only
29Si is of use in
NMR and
EPR spectroscopy, as it is the only one with a nuclear spin (''I'' =). All three are produced in
Type Ia supernovae through the
oxygen-burning process, with
28Si being made as part of the
alpha process and hence the most abundant. The fusion of
28Si with alpha particles by
photodisintegration rearrangement in stars is known as the
silicon-burning process; it is the last stage of
stellar nucleosynthesis before the rapid collapse and violent explosion of the star in question in a
type II supernova.
Twenty
radioisotopes have been characterized, the two stablest being
32Si with a
half-life
Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atom
Every atom is composed of a nucleus and ...
of about 150 years, and
31Si with a half-life of 2.62 hours. All the remaining
radioactive
Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is cons ...
isotopes have half-lives that are less than seven seconds, and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than one tenth of a second. Silicon has one known
nuclear isomer
A nuclear isomer is a metastable state of an atomic nucleus, in which one or more nucleons (protons or neutrons) occupy higher energy levels than in the ground state of the same nucleus. "Metastable" describes nuclei whose excited states have ...
,
34mSi, with a half-life less than 210 nanoseconds.
32Si undergoes low-energy
beta decay
In nuclear physics, beta decay (β-decay) is a type of radioactive decay in which a beta particle (fast energetic electron or positron) is emitted from an atomic nucleus, transforming the original nuclide to an isobar of that nuclide. F ...
to
32P and then stable
32 S.
31Si may be produced by the
neutron activation of natural silicon and is thus useful for quantitative analysis; it can be easily detected by its characteristic beta decay to stable
31 P, in which the emitted electron carries up to 1.48
MeV of energy.
The known isotopes of silicon range in
mass number from 22 to 44. The most common
decay mode of the isotopes with mass numbers lower than the three stable isotopes is
inverse beta decay, primarily forming aluminium isotopes (13 protons) as
decay products. The most common decay mode for the heavier unstable isotopes is beta decay, primarily forming phosphorus isotopes (15 protons) as decay products.
Silicon can enter the oceans through groundwater and riverine transport. Large fluxes of groundwater input have an isotopic composition which is distinct from riverine silicon inputs. Isotopic variations in groundwater and riverine transports contribute to variations in oceanic
30Si values. Currently, there are substantial differences in the isotopic values of deep water in the world's ocean basins. Between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, there is a deep water
30Si gradient of greater than 0.3 parts per thousand.
30Si is most commonly associated with productivity in the oceans.
Chemistry and compounds
Crystalline bulk silicon is rather inert, but becomes more reactive at high temperatures. Like its neighbour aluminium, silicon forms a thin, continuous surface layer of
silicon dioxide
Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is ...
() that protects the metal from oxidation. Thus silicon does not measurably react with the air below 900 °C, but formation of the
vitreous dioxide rapidly increases between 950 °C and 1160 °C and when 1400 °C is reached, atmospheric
nitrogen also reacts to give the nitrides SiN and . Silicon reacts with gaseous
sulfur
Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundance of the chemical elements, abundant, Polyvalency (chemistry), multivalent and nonmetallic. Under standard c ...
at 600 °C and gaseous
phosphorus at 1000 °C. This oxide layer nevertheless does not prevent reaction with the
halogens;
fluorine
Fluorine is a chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements can ...
attacks silicon vigorously at room temperature,
chlorine does so at about 300 °C, and
bromine and
iodine at about 500 °C. Silicon does not react with most aqueous acids, but is oxidised and complexed by
hydrofluoric acid mixtures containing either
chlorine or
nitric acid
Nitric acid is the inorganic compound with the formula . It is a highly corrosive mineral acid. The compound is colorless, but older samples tend to be yellow cast due to decomposition into oxides of nitrogen. Most commercially available ni ...
to form
hexafluorosilicates. It readily dissolves in hot aqueous alkali to form
silicates. At high temperatures, silicon also reacts with
alkyl halides; this reaction may be catalysed by
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductility, ductile metal with very high thermal conductivity, thermal and electrical conductivity. A fre ...
to directly synthesise
organosilicon chlorides as precursors to
silicone
A silicone or polysiloxane is a polymer
A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + '' -mer'', "part")
is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their ...
polymers. Upon melting, silicon becomes extremely reactive, alloying with most metals to form
silicides, and reducing most metal oxides because the
heat of formation of silicon dioxide is so large. In fact, molten silicon reacts virtually with every known kind of crucible material (except its own oxide, ).
This happens due to silicon's high binding forces for the light elements and to its high dissolving power for most elements.
As a result, containers for liquid silicon must be made of
refractory
In materials science, a refractory material or refractory is a material that is resistant to decomposition by heat, pressure, or chemical attack, and retains strength and form at high temperatures. Refractories are polycrystalline, polypha ...
, unreactive materials such as
zirconium dioxide or group 4, 5, and 6 borides.
Tetrahedral coordination is a major structural motif in silicon chemistry just as it is for carbon chemistry. However, the 3p subshell is rather more diffuse than the 2p subshell and does not hybridise so well with the 3s subshell. As a result, the chemistry of silicon and its heavier congeners shows significant differences from that of carbon,
and thus octahedral coordination is also significant. For example, the
electronegativity of silicon (1.90) is much less than that of carbon (2.55), because the valence electrons of silicon are further from the nucleus than those of carbon and hence experience smaller electrostatic forces of attraction from the nucleus. The poor overlap of 3p orbitals also results in a much lower tendency toward
catenation (formation of Si–Si bonds) for silicon than for carbon, due to the concomitant weakening of the Si–Si bond compared to the C–C bond:
the average Si–Si bond energy is approximately 226 kJ/mol, compared to a value of 356 kJ/mol for the C–C bond. This results in multiply bonded silicon compounds generally being much less stable than their carbon counterparts, an example of the
double bond rule. On the other hand, the presence of radial nodes in the 3p orbitals of silicon suggests the possibility of
hypervalence, as seen in five and six-coordinate derivatives of silicon such as and .
Lastly, because of the increasing energy gap between the valence s and p orbitals as the group is descended, the divalent state grows in importance from carbon to lead, so that a few unstable divalent compounds are known for silicon; this lowering of the main oxidation state, in tandem with increasing atomic radii, results in an increase of metallic character down the group. Silicon already shows some incipient metallic behavior, particularly in the behavior of its oxide compounds and its reaction with acids as well as bases (though this takes some effort), and is hence often referred to as a
metalloid
A metalloid is a type of chemical element which has a preponderance of properties in between, or that are a mixture of, those of metals and nonmetals. There is no standard definition of a metalloid and no complete agreement on which elements ...
rather than a nonmetal.
However, metallicity does not become clear in group 14 until germanium and dominant until tin, with the growing importance of the lower +2 oxidation state.
Silicon shows clear differences from carbon. For example,
organic chemistry has very few analogies with silicon chemistry, while
silicate minerals have a structural complexity unseen in
oxocarbons. Silicon tends to resemble germanium far more than it does carbon, and this resemblance is enhanced by the
d-block contraction, resulting in the size of the germanium atom being much closer to that of the silicon atom than periodic trends would predict. Nevertheless, there are still some differences because of the growing importance of the divalent state in germanium compared to silicon, which result in germanium being significantly more metallic than silicon. Additionally, the lower Ge–O bond strength compared to the
Si–O bond strength results in the absence of "germanone" polymers that would be analogous to
silicone
A silicone or polysiloxane is a polymer
A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + '' -mer'', "part")
is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their ...
polymers.
Silicides

Many metal
silicides are known, most of which have formulae that cannot be explained through simple appeals to
valence: their bonding ranges from
metallic to
ionic and
covalent. Some known stoichiometries are , , , , , , , , , MSi, , , , and . They are structurally more similar to the
borides than the
carbide
In chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, ...
s, in keeping with the
diagonal relationship between
boron
Boron is a chemical element with the symbol B and atomic number 5. In its crystalline form it is a brittle, dark, lustrous metalloid
A metalloid is a type of chemical element which has a preponderance of properties in between, ...
and silicon, although the larger size of silicon than boron means that exact structural analogies are few and far between. The heats of formation of the silicides are usually similar to those of the borides and carbides of the same elements, but they usually melt at lower temperatures. Silicides are known for all stable elements in groups 1–10, with the exception of
beryllium: in particular,
uranium and the transition metals of groups 4–10 show the widest range of stoichiometries. Except for
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductility, ductile metal with very high thermal conductivity, thermal and electrical conductivity. A fre ...
, the metals in groups 11–15 do not form silicides. Instead, most form
eutectic mixtures, although the heaviest
post-transition metal
The metallic elements in the periodic table located between the transition metals and the chemically weak nonmetallic metalloids have received many names in the literature, such as ''post-transition metals'', ''poor metals'', ''other metals'', ...
s
mercury,
thallium,
lead
Lead is a chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements cann ...
, and
bismuth are completely immiscible with liquid silicon.
Usually, silicides are prepared by direct reaction of the elements. For example, the
alkali metals and
alkaline earth metals react with silicon or silicon oxide to give silicides. Nevertheless, even with these highly electropositive elements true silicon anions are not obtainable, and most of these compounds are semiconductors. For example, the alkali metal silicides contain pyramidal tricoordinate silicon in the anion, isoelectronic with
white phosphorus, .
Metal-rich silicides tend to have isolated silicon atoms (e. g. ); with increasing silicon content, catenation increases, resulting in isolated clusters of two (e. g. ) or four silicon atoms (e. g. ) at first, followed by chains (e. g. CaSi), layers (e. g. ), or three-dimensional networks of silicon atoms spanning space (e. g. ) as the silicon content rises even higher.
The silicides of the group 1 and 2 metals usually are more reactive than the transition metal silicides. The latter usually do not react with aqueous reagents, except for
hydrofluoric acid; however, they do react with much more aggressive reagents such as liquid
potassium hydroxide, or gaseous fluorine or
chlorine when red-hot. The pre-transition metal silicides instead readily react with water and aqueous acids, usually producing hydrogen or silanes:
: + 3 → + 3
: + 2 → 2 +
Products often vary with the stoichiometry of the silicide reactant. For example, is polar and non-conducting and has the anti- structure with single isolated silicon atoms, and reacts with water to produce
calcium hydroxide, hydrated silicon dioxide, and hydrogen gas. CaSi with its zigzag chains of silicon atoms instead reacts to give silanes and polymeric , while with its puckered layers of silicon atoms does not react with water, but will react with dilute hydrochloric acid: the product is a yellow polymeric solid with stoichiometry .
Silanes
Speculation on silicon hydride chemistry started in the 1830s, contemporary with the development of synthetic
organic chemistry.
Silane itself, as well as
trichlorosilane, were first synthesised by
Friedrich Wöhler and
Heinrich Buff in 1857 by reacting aluminium–silicon alloys with
hydrochloric acid
Hydrochloric acid, also known as muriatic acid, is an aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride. It is a colorless solution with a distinctive pungent smell. It is classified as a strong acid. It is a component of the gastric acid in the dig ...
, and characterised as and by
Charles Friedel and
Albert Ladenburg in 1867.
Disilane ) followed in 1902, when it was first made by
Henri Moissan and
Samuel Smiles
Samuel Smiles (23 December 1812 – 16 April 1904) was a British author and government reformer. Although he campaigned on a Chartist platform, he promoted the idea that more progress would come from new attitudes than from new laws. His pri ...
by the
protonolysis of
magnesium silicides. Further investigation had to wait until 1916 because of the great reactivity and thermal instability of the silanes; it was then that
Alfred Stock began to study silicon hydrides in earnest with new greaseless vacuum techniques, as they were found as contaminants of his focus, the
boron hydrides. The names ''silanes'' and ''boranes'' are his, based on analogy with the
alkane
In organic chemistry, an alkane, or paraffin (a historical trivial name that also has other meanings), is an acyclic saturated hydrocarbon. In other words, an alkane consists of hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element
A che ...
s. The Moissan and Smiles method of preparation of silanes and silane derivatives via protonolysis of metal silicides is still used, although the yield is lowered by the hydrolysis of the products that occurs simultaneously, so that the preferred route today is to treat substituted silanes with hydride reducing agents such as
lithium aluminium hydride in etheric solutions at low temperatures. Direct reaction of HX or RX with silicon, possibly with a catalyst such as copper, is also a viable method of producing substituted silanes.
The silanes comprise a
homologous series of silicon hydrides with a general formula of . They are all strong
reducing agent
In chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, st ...
s. Unbranched and branched chains are known up to ''n''=8, and the cycles and are also known. The first two, silane and disilane, are colourless gases; the heavier members of the series are volatile liquids. All silanes are very reactive and catch fire or explode spontaneously in air. They become less thermally stable with room temperature, so that only silane is indefinitely stable at room temperature, although disilane does not decompose very quickly (only 2.5% of a sample decomposes after the passage of eight months). They decompose to form polymeric
polysilicon hydride and hydrogen gas. As expected from the difference in atomic weight, the silanes are less volatile than the corresponding alkanes and boranes, but more so than the corresponding germanes. They are much more reactive than the corresponding alkanes, because of the larger radius of silicon compared to carbon facilitating
nucleophilic attack at the silicon, the greater polarity of the Si–H bond compared to the C–H bond, and the ability of silicon to expand its octet and hence form adducts and lower the reaction's
activation energy.
Silane
pyrolysis gives polymeric species and finally elemental silicon and hydrogen; indeed ultrapure silicon is commercially produced by the pyrolysis of silane. While the thermal decomposition of alkanes starts by the breaking of a C–H or C–C bond and the formation of radical intermediates, polysilanes decompose by eliminating
silylenes : or :SiHR, as the activation energy of this process (~210 kJ/mol) is much less than the Si–Si and Si–H bond energies. While pure silanes do not react with pure water or dilute acids, traces of alkali catalyse immediate hydrolysis to hydrated silicon dioxide. If the reaction is carried out in
methanol
Methanol (also called methyl alcohol and wood spirit, amongst other names) is an organic chemical and the simplest aliphatic alcohol, with the formula C H3 O H (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group, often abbreviated as MeOH). It is ...
, controlled solvolysis results in the products , , and . The Si–H bond also adds to
alkene
In organic chemistry, an alkene is a hydrocarbon containing a carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetal
In chemistry, a nonmetal is a chemical element that generally lacks a ...
s, a reaction which proceeds slowly and speeds up with increasing substitution of the silane involved. At 450 °C, silane participates in an
addition reaction
In organic chemistry, an addition reaction is, in simplest terms, an organic reaction where two or more molecules combine to form a larger one (the adduct
An adduct (from the Latin ''adductus'', "drawn toward" alternatively, a contraction of ...
with
acetone
Acetone (2-propanone or dimethyl ketone), is an organic compound
In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon- hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains ...
, as well as a
ring-opening reaction with
ethylene oxide
Ethylene oxide is an organic compound
In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon- hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), ...
. Direct reaction of the silanes with chlorine or bromine results in explosions at room temperature, but the reaction of silane with bromine at −80 °C is controlled and yields bromosilane and dibromosilane. The monohalosilanes may be formed by reacting silane with the appropriate
hydrogen halide with an catalyst, or by reacting silane with a solid
silver
Silver is a chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements ...
halide in a heated flow reactor:
: + 2 AgCl + HCl + 2 Ag
Among the derivatives of silane,
iodosilane () and
potassium silanide () are very useful synthetic intermediates in the production of more complicated silicon-containing compounds: the latter is a colourless crystalline ionic solid containing K
+ cations and anions in the
NaCl structure, and is made by the reduction of silane by
potassium
Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K (from Neo-Latin '' kalium'') and atomic number19. Potassium is a silvery-white metal that is soft enough to be cut with a knife with little force. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmo ...
metal.
Additionally, the reactive hypervalent species is also known. With suitable organic substituents it is possible to produce stable polysilanes: they have surprisingly high electric conductivities, arising from
sigma delocalisation of the electrons in the chain.
Halides
Silicon and
silicon carbide
Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum (), is a hard chemical compound containing silicon and carbon. A semiconductor, it occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite, but has been mass-produced as a powder and crystal ...
readily react with all four stable halogens, forming the colourless, reactive, and volatile silicon tetrahalides
Silicon tetrafluoride also may be made by fluorinating the other silicon halides, and is produced by the attack of
hydrofluoric acid on glass.
Heating two different tetrahalides together also produces a random mixture of mixed halides, which may also be produced by halogen exchange reactions. The melting and boiling points of these species usually rise with increasing atomic weight, though there are many exceptions: for example, the melting and boiling points drop as one passes from through to . The shift from the hypoelectronic elements in
Group 13 and earlier to the
Group 14 elements is illustrated by the change from an infinite ionic structure in
aluminium fluoride to a lattice of simple covalent silicon tetrafluoride molecules, as dictated by the lower electronegativity of aluminium than silicon, the stoichiometry (the +4 oxidation state being too high for true ionicity), and the smaller size of the silicon atom compared to the aluminium atom.
Silicon tetrachloride is manufactured on a huge scale as a precursor to the production of pure silicon, silicon dioxide, and some silicon
ester
In chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, ...
s. The silicon tetrahalides hydrolyse readily in water, unlike the carbon tetrahalides, again because of the larger size of the silicon atom rendering it more open to nucleophilic attack and the ability of the silicon atom to expand its octet which carbon lacks.
The reaction of silicon tetrafluoride with excess
hydrofluoric acid produces the octahedral
hexafluorosilicate anion .
Analogous to the silanes, halopolysilanes also are known. While catenation in carbon compounds is maximised in the hydrogen compounds rather than the halides, the opposite is true for silicon, so that the halopolysilanes are known up to at least , , and . A suggested explanation for this phenomenon is the compensation for the electron loss of silicon to the more electronegative halogen atoms by
pi backbonding from the filled p
π orbitals on the halogen atoms to the empty d
π orbitals on silicon: this is similar to the situation of
carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide ( chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the si ...
in
metal carbonyl complexes and explains their stability. These halopolysilanes may be produced by
comproportionation of silicon tetrahalides with elemental silicon, or by condensation of lighter halopolysilanes (
trimethylammonium being a useful catalyst for this reaction).
Silica
Silicon dioxide
Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is ...
(), also known as silica, is one of the best-studied compounds, second only to
water
Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts a ...
. Twelve different crystal modifications of silica are known, the most common being α-
quartz, a major constituent of many rocks such as
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock
Igneous rock (derived from the Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin ...
and
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accu ...
. It also is known to occur in a pure form as
rock crystal; impure forms are known as
rose quartz,
smoky quartz,
morion,
amethyst, and
citrine. Some poorly crystalline forms of quartz are also known, such as
chalcedony,
chrysoprase,
carnelian,
agate
Agate () is a common rock formation, consisting of chalcedony and quartz as its primary components, with a wide variety of colors. Agates are primarily formed within volcanic
A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass objec ...
,
onyx,
jasper,
heliotrope, and
flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate se ...
. Other modifications of silicon dioxide are known in some other minerals such as
tridymite and
cristobalite, as well as the much less common
coesite and
stishovite. Biologically generated forms are also known as
kieselguhr and
diatomaceous earth.
Vitreous silicon dioxide is known as
tektites, and
obsidian
Obsidian () is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock.
Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements such as s ...
, and rarely as
lechatelierite. Some synthetic forms are known as
keatite.
Opals are composed of complicated crystalline aggregates of partially hydrated silicon dioxide.
File:Quartz, Tibet.jpg, Quartz
File:Quartz - Agateplate, redbrown-white.jpg, Agate
File:Tridymite tabulars - Ochtendung, Eifel, Germany.jpg, Tridymite
File:Cristobalite-Fayalite-40048.jpg, Cristobalite
File:Coesiteimage.jpg, Coesite
Most crystalline forms of silica are made of infinite arrangements of tetrahedra (with Si at the center) connected at their corners, with each oxygen atom linked to two silicon atoms. In the thermodynamically stable room-temperature form, α-quartz, these tetrahedra are linked in intertwined helical chains with two different Si–O distances (159.7 and 161.7 pm) with a Si–O–Si angle of 144°. These helices can be either left- or right-handed, so that individual α-quartz crystals are optically active. At 537 °C, this transforms quickly and reversibly into the similar β-quartz, with a change of the Si–O–Si angle to 155° but a retention of handedness. Further heating to 867 °C results in another reversible phase transition to β-tridymite, in which some Si–O bonds are broken to allow for the arrangement of the tetrahedra into a more open and less dense hexagonal structure. This transition is slow and hence tridymite occurs as a metastable mineral even below this transition temperature; when cooled to about 120 °C it quickly and reversibly transforms by slight displacements of individual silicon and oxygen atoms to α-tridymite, similarly to the transition from α-quartz to β-quartz. β-tridymite slowly transforms to cubic β-cristobalite at about 1470 °C, which once again exists metastably below this transition temperature and transforms at 200–280 °C to α-cristobalite via small atomic displacements. β-cristobalite melts at 1713 °C; the freezing of silica from the melt is quite slow and
vitrification, or the formation of a
glass, is likely to occur instead. In vitreous silica, the tetrahedra remain corner-connected, but the symmetry and periodicity of the crystalline forms are lost. Because of the slow conversions between these three forms, it is possible upon rapid heating to melt β-quartz (1550 °C) or β-tridymite (1703 °C). Silica boils at approximately 2800 °C. Other high-pressure forms of silica are known, such as coesite and stishovite: these are known in nature, formed under the shock pressure of a meteorite impact and then rapidly quenched to preserve the crystal structure. Similar melting and cooling of silica occurs following
lightning
Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...
strikes, forming glassy
lechatelierite. W-silica is an unstable low-density form involving tetrahedra sharing opposite edges instead of corners, forming parallel chains similarly to
silicon disulfide () and
silicon diselenide (): it quickly returns to forming amorphous silica with heat or traces of water
Silica is rather inert chemically. It is not attacked by any acids other than hydrofluoric acid. However, it slowly dissolves in hot concentrated alkalis, and does so rather quickly in fused metal hydroxides or carbonates, to give metal silicates. Among the elements, it is attacked only by fluorine at room temperature to form silicon tetrafluoride: hydrogen and carbon also react, but require temperatures over 1000 °C to do so. Silica nevertheless reacts with many metal and
metalloid
A metalloid is a type of chemical element which has a preponderance of properties in between, or that are a mixture of, those of metals and nonmetals. There is no standard definition of a metalloid and no complete agreement on which elements ...
oxides to form a wide variety of compounds important in the glass and ceramic industries above all, but also have many other uses: for example,
sodium silicate is often used in detergents due to its
buffering,
saponifying, and
emulsifying properties
Silicic acids
Adding water to silica drops its melting point by around 800 °C due to the breaking of the structure by replacing Si–O–Si linkages with terminating Si–OH groups. Increasing water concentration results in the formation of hydrated
silica gels and
colloidal silica dispersions. Many hydrates and
silicic acids exist in the most dilute of aqueous solutions, but these are rather insoluble and quickly precipitate and condense and cross-link to form various polysilicic acids of variable combinations following the formula , similar to the behaviour of
boron
Boron is a chemical element with the symbol B and atomic number 5. In its crystalline form it is a brittle, dark, lustrous metalloid
A metalloid is a type of chemical element which has a preponderance of properties in between, ...
,
aluminium
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that speci ...
, and
iron
Iron () is a chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements ca ...
, among other elements. Hence, although some simple silicic acids have been identified in dilute solutions, such as
orthosilicic acid and
metasilicic acid , none of these are likely to exist in the solid state.
Silicate minerals
About 95% of the Earth's
crustal rocks are made of silica or silicate and
aluminosilicate minerals, as reflected in oxygen, silicon, and aluminium being the three most common elements in the crust (in that order). Measured by mass, silicon makes up 27.7% of the
Earth's crust
Earth's crust is Earth's thin outer shell of rock, referring to less than 1% of Earth's radius and volume. It is the top component of the lithosphere, a division of Earth's layers that includes the crust and the upper part of the mantle. ...
. Pure silicon crystals are very rarely found in nature, but notable exceptions are crystals as large as to 0.3 mm across found during sampling gases from the
Kudriavy volcano on
Iturup, one of the
Kuril Islands.
Silicate and aluminosilicate minerals have many different structures and varying stoichiometry, but they may be classified following some general principles. Tetrahedral units are common to almost all these compounds, either as discrete structures, or combined into larger units by the sharing of corner oxygen atoms. These may be divided into ''neso''-silicates (discrete units) sharing no oxygen atoms, ''soro''-silicates (discrete units) sharing one, ''cyclo''-silicates (closed ring structures) and ''ino''-silicates (continuous chain or ribbon structures) both sharing two, ''phyllo''-silicates (continuous sheets) sharing three, and ''tecto''-silicates (continuous three-dimensional frameworks) sharing four. The lattice of oxygen atoms that results is usually close-packed, or close to it, with the charge being balanced by other cations in various different polyhedral sites according to size.
The
orthosilicates MSiO (M = Be, Mg, Mn, Fe, Zn) and are ''neso''-silicates. (
phenacite) is unusual as both Be
II and Si
IV occupy tetrahedral four-coordinated sites; the other divalent cations instead occupy six-coordinated octahedral sites and often isomorphously replace each other as in
olivine, .
Zircon, , demands eight-coordination of the Zr
IV cations due to stoichiometry and because of their larger ionic radius (84 pm). Also significant are the
garnets,
M(SiO) in which the divalent cations (e.g. Ca, Mg, Fe) are eight-coordinated and the trivalent ones are six-coordinated (e.g. Al, Cr, Fe). Regular coordination is not always present: for example, it is not found in , which mixes six- and eight-coordinate sites for Ca
II. ''Soro''-silicates, involving discrete double or triple tetrahedral units, are quite rare: metasilicates involving cyclic "
2''n''−" units of corner-abutting tetrahedra forming a polygonal ring are also known.
Chain metasilicates, , form by corner-sharing of an indefinite chain of linked tetrahedra. Many differences arise due to the differing repeat distances of conformation across the line of tetrahedra. A repeat distance of two is most common, as in most
pyroxene minerals, but repeat distances of one, three, four, five, six, seven, nine, and twelve are also known. These chains may then link across each other to form double chains and ribbons, as in the
asbestos
Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral
Silicate minerals are rock-forming minerals made up of silicate groups. They are the largest and most important class of minerals and make up approximately 90 percent of Earth ...
minerals, involving repeated chains of cyclic tetrahedron rings.

Layer silicates, such as the clay minerals and the
micas, are very common, and often are formed by horizontal cross-linking of metasilicate chains or planar condensation of smaller units. An example is
kaolinite []; in many of these minerals cation and anion replacement is common, so that for example tetrahedral Si
IV may be replaced by Al
III, octahedral Al
III by Mg
II, and by . Three-dimensional framework aluminosilicates are structurally very complex; they may be conceived of as starting from the structure, but having replaced up to one-half of the Si
IV atoms with Al
III, they require more cations to be included in the structure to balance charge. Examples include
feldspar
Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, inclu ...
s (the most abundant minerals on the Earth),
zeolites, and
ultramarines. Many feldspars can be thought of as forming part of the ternary system . Their lattice is destroyed by high pressure prompting Al
III to undergo six-coordination rather than four-coordination, and this reaction destroying feldspars may be a reason for the
Mohorovičić discontinuity, which would imply that the crust and mantle have the same chemical composition, but different lattices, although this is not a universally held view. Zeolites have many polyhedral cavities in their frameworks (
truncated cuboctahedra being most common, but other polyhedra also are known as zeolite cavities), allowing them to include loosely bound molecules such as water in their structure. Ultramarines alternate silicon and aluminium atoms and include a variety of other anions such as , , and , but are otherwise similar to the feldspars.
Other inorganic compounds
Silicon disulfide () is formed by burning silicon in gaseous sulfur at 100 °C; sublimation of the resulting compound in nitrogen results in white, flexible long fibers reminiscent of
asbestos
Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral
Silicate minerals are rock-forming minerals made up of silicate groups. They are the largest and most important class of minerals and make up approximately 90 percent of Earth ...
with a structure similar to W-silica. This melts at 1090 °C and sublimes at 1250 °C; at high temperature and pressure this transforms to a crystal structure analogous to cristobalite. However, lacks the variety of structures of , and quickly hydrolyses to silica and
hydrogen sulfide
Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless chalcogen-hydride gas, and is poisonous, corrosive, and flammable, with trace amounts in ambient atmosphere having a characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs. The un ...
. It is also ammonolysed quickly and completely by liquid
ammonia
Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogen ...
as follows to form an
imide:
: + 4 → + 2
It reacts with the sulfides of sodium, magnesium, aluminium, and iron to form metal
thiosilicates: reaction with
ethanol
Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl ...
results in
tetraethylsilicate and hydrogen sulfide. Ethylsilicate is useful as its controlled hydrolysis produces adhesive or film-like forms of silica. Reacting hydrogen sulfide with silicon tetrahalides yields silicon thiohalides such as , cyclic , and crystalline . Despite the
double bond rule, stable organosilanethiones RR'Si=S have been made thanks to the stabilising mechanism of intermolecular coordination via an
amine
In chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their compositi ...
group.
Silicon nitride
Silicon nitride is a chemical compound of the elements silicon and nitrogen. is the most thermodynamically stable and commercially important of the silicon nitrides, and the term "silicon nitride" commonly refers to this specific composition. ...
, , may be formed by directly reacting silicon with nitrogen above 1300 °C, but a more economical means of production is by heating silica and coke in a stream of nitrogen and hydrogen gas at 1500 °C. It would make a promising
ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...
if not for the difficulty of working with and sintering it: chemically, it is near-totally inert, and even above 1000 °C it keeps its strength, shape, and continues to be resistant to wear and corrosion. It is very hard (9 on the
Mohs hardness scale), dissociates only at 1900 °C at 1 atm, and is quite dense (density 3.185 g/cm
3), because of its compact structure similar to that of phenacite (). A similar refractory material is , formed by heating silicon and silica at 1450 °C in an argon stream containing 5% nitrogen gas, involving 4-coordinate silicon and 3-coordinate nitrogen alternating in puckered hexagonal tilings interlinked by non-linear Si–O–Si linkages to each other.
Reacting silyl halides with ammonia or alkylammonia derivatives in the gaseous phase or in ethanolic solution produces various volatile silylamides, which are silicon analogues of the
amine
In chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their compositi ...
s:
:3 + 4 → + 3
: + 2 → +
:4 + 5 → + 4
Many such compounds have been prepared, the only known restriction being that the nitrogen is always tertiary, and species containing the SiH–NH group are unstable at room temperature. The stoichiometry around the nitrogen atom in compounds such as is planar, which has been attributed to a p
π–d
π interaction between a lone pair on nitrogen and an empty d
π orbital on silicon. Similarly, trisilylamines are weaker as ligands than their carbon analogues, the tertiary amines, although substitution of some groups by groups mitigates this weakness. For example, {{chem, N(SiH, 3, ), 3, does not form an
adduct
An adduct (from the Latin ''adductus'', "drawn toward" alternatively, a contraction of "addition product") is a product of a direct addition of two or more distinct molecules, resulting in a single reaction product containing all atoms of all co ...
with {{chem, link=borane, BH, 3 at all, while {{chem, MeN(SiH, 3, ), 2> and {{chem, Me, 2, NSiH, 3 form adducts at low temperatures that decompose upon warming. Some silicon analogues of
imines, with a Si=N double bond, are known: the first found was Bu
''t''2Si=N–SiBu
''t''3, which was discovered in 1986.{{sfn, Greenwood, Earnshaw, 1997, p=359
Silicon carbide
Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum (), is a hard chemical compound containing silicon and carbon. A semiconductor, it occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite, but has been mass-produced as a powder and crystal ...
(SiC) was first made by
Edward Goodrich Acheson in 1891, who named it carborundum to reference its intermediate hardness and abrasive power between
diamond (an allotrope of carbon) and
corundum (
aluminium oxide). He soon founded a company to manufacture it, and today about one million tonnes are produced each year.{{sfn, Greenwood, Earnshaw, 1997, p=334 Silicon carbide exists in about 250 crystalline forms. The polymorphism of SiC is characterized by a large family of similar crystalline structures called polytypes. They are variations of the same chemical compound that are identical in two dimensions and differ in the third. Thus they can be viewed as layers stacked in a certain sequence.
[{{cite journal , doi =10.1063/1.358463 , title=Large-band-gap SiC, III–V nitride, and II–VI ZnSe-based semiconductor device technologies , year=1994 , author=Morkoç, H. , journal=Journal of Applied Physics , volume=76, issue=3 , page=1363 , last2=Strite , first2=S. , last3=Gao , first3=G.B. , last4=Lin , first4=M.E. , last5=Sverdlov , first5=B. , last6=Burns , first6=M. , bibcode=1994JAP....76.1363M] It is made industrially by reduction of quartz sand with excess coke or anthracite at 2000–2500 °C in an electric furnace:{{sfn, Greenwood, Earnshaw, 1997, p=334
:{{chem, SiO, 2 + 2 C → Si + 2 CO
:Si + C → SiC
It is the most thermally stable binary silicon compound, only decomposing through loss of silicon starting from around 2700 °C. It is resistant to most aqueous acids,
phosphoric acid being an exception. It forms a protective layer of
silicon dioxide
Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is ...
on the surface and hence only oxidises appreciably in air above 1000 °C; removal of this layer by molten hydroxides or carbonates leads to quick oxidation. Silicon carbide is rapidly attacked by chlorine gas, which forms {{chem, SiCl, 4 and carbon at 100 °C and {{chem, SiCl, 4 and {{chem, link=carbon tetrachloride, CCl, 4 at 1000 °C. It is mostly used as an abrasive and a refractory material, as it is chemically stable and very strong, and it fractures to form a very sharp cutting edge. It is also useful as an intrinsic semiconductor, as well as an extrinsic semiconductor upon being doped.{{sfn, Greenwood, Earnshaw, 1997, p=334 In its diamond-like behavior it serves as an illustration of the chemical similarity between carbon and silicon.{{sfn, Greenwood, Earnshaw, 1997, p=361
Organosilicon compounds
{{main, Organosilicon
Because the Si–C
bond is close in strength to the C–C bond,
organosilicon compounds tend to be markedly thermally and chemically stable. For example,
tetraphenylsilane ({{chem, SiPh, 4) may be distilled in air even at its boiling point of 428 °C, and so may its substituted derivatives {{chem, Ph, 3, SiCl and {{chem, Ph, 2, SiCl, 2, which boil at 378 °C and 305 °C respectively. Furthermore, since carbon and silicon are chemical congeners, organosilicon chemistry shows some significant similarities with carbon chemistry, for example in the propensity of such compounds for catenation and forming multiple bonds.{{sfn, Greenwood, Earnshaw, 1997, p=361 However, significant differences also arise: since silicon is more electropositive than carbon, bonds to more electronegative elements are generally stronger with silicon than with carbon, and vice versa. Thus the Si–F bond is significantly stronger than even the
C–F bond and is one of the strongest single bonds, while the Si–H bond is much weaker than the C–H bond and is readily broken. Furthermore, the ability of silicon to expand its octet is not shared by carbon, and hence some organosilicon reactions have no organic analogues. For example, nucleophilic attack on silicon does not proceed by the
SN2 or
SN1 processes, but instead goes through a negatively charged true pentacoordinate intermediate and appears like a substitution at a hindered tertiary atom. This works for silicon, unlike for carbon, because the long Si–C bonds reduce the steric hindrance and the d-orbital of silicon is geometrically unconstrained for nucleophilic attack, unlike for example a C–O σ* antibonding orbital. Nevertheless, despite these differences, the mechanism is still often called "S
N2 at silicon" for simplicity.
[Clayden, pp. 668–77]
One of the most useful silicon-containing groups is
trimethylsilyl
A trimethylsilyl group (abbreviated TMS) is a functional group
In organic chemistry, a functional group is a substituent or moiety in a molecule that causes the molecule's characteristic chemical reactions. The same functional group will ...
, {{chem, Me, 3, Si–. The Si–C bond connecting it to the rest of the molecule is reasonably strong, allowing it to remain while the rest of the molecule undergoes reactions, but is not so strong that it cannot be removed specifically when needed, for example by the
fluoride ion, which is a very weak nucleophile for carbon compounds but a very strong one for organosilicon compounds. It may be compared to acidic
protons; while trisilylmethyl is removed by hard nucleophiles instead of bases, both removals usually promote elimination. As a general rule, while saturated carbon is best attacked by nucleophiles that are neutral compounds, those based on nonmetals far down on the periodic table (e.g. sulfur,
selenium
Selenium is a chemical element with the symbol Se and atomic number 34. It is a nonmetal
In chemistry, a nonmetal is a chemical element that generally lacks a predominance of metallic properties; they range from colorless gases (like ...
, or
iodine), or even both, silicon is best attacked by charged nucleophiles, particularly those involving such highly electronegative nonmetals as oxygen, fluorine, or chlorine. For example, enolates react at the carbon in
haloalkanes, but at the oxygen in
silyl
Silylation is the introduction of one or more (usually) substituted silyl groups (R3Si) to a molecule. The process is the basis of organosilicon chemistry.
Of organic compounds
Alcohols, carboxylic acids, amines, thiols, and phosphates can be sil ...
chlorides; and when trimethylsilyl is removed from an organic molecule using hydroxide as a nucleophile, the product of the reaction is not the silanol as one would expect from using carbon chemistry as an analogy, because the siloxide is strongly nucleophilic and attacks the original molecule to yield the
silyl ether
Silyl ethers are a group of chemical compound
A chemical compound is a chemical substance composed of many identical molecules (or molecular entities) containing atom
Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons b ...
hexamethyldisiloxane, {{chem, (Me, 3, Si), 2, O. Conversely, while the S
N2 reaction is mostly unaffected by the presence of a partial positive charge (δ+) at the carbon, the analogous "S
N2" reaction at silicon is so affected. Thus, for example, the silyl
triflates are so electrophilic that they react 10
8 to 10
9 times faster than silyl chlorides with oxygen-containing nucleophiles.
Trimethylsilyl triflate is in particular a very good
Lewis acid
A Lewis acid (named for the American physical chemist Gilbert N. Lewis) is a chemical species that contains an empty orbital which is capable of accepting an electron pair from a Lewis base to form a Lewis adduct
An adduct (from the Latin ...
and is used to convert
carbonyl
In organic chemistry, a carbonyl group is a functional group composed of a carbon atom double-bonded to an oxygen atom: C=O. It is common to several classes of organic compounds, as part of many larger functional groups. A compound containi ...
compounds to
acetal
In organic chemistry, an acetal is a functional group
In organic chemistry, a functional group is a substituent or moiety in a molecule that causes the molecule's characteristic chemical reactions. The same functional group will unde ...
s and
silyl enol ether
Silyl enol ethers in organic chemistry are a class of organic compound
In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon- hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form ch ...
s, reacting them together analogously to the
aldol reaction.
Si–C bonds are commonly formed in three ways. In the laboratory, preparation is often carried out in small quantities by reacting
tetrachlorosilane (silicon tetrachloride) with
organolithium,
Grignard, or
organoaluminium reagents, or by catalytic addition of Si–H across C=C double bonds. The second route has the drawback of not being applicable to the most important silanes, the methyl and phenyl silanes. Organosilanes are made industrially by directly reacting alkyl or aryl halides with silicon with 10% by weight metallic
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductility, ductile metal with very high thermal conductivity, thermal and electrical conductivity. A fre ...
as a catalyst. Standard organic reactions suffice to produce many derivatives; the resulting organosilanes are often significantly more reactive than their carbon congeners, readily undergoing hydrolysis, ammonolysis, alcoholysis, and condensation to form cyclic oligomers or linear polymers.{{sfn, Greenwood, Earnshaw, 1997, p=361
Silicone polymers
{{main, Silicone

The word "silicone" was first used by Frederic Kipping in 1901. He invented the word to illustrate the similarity of chemical formulae between {{chem, Ph, 2, SiO and
benzophenone, {{chem, Ph, 2, CO, although he also stressed the lack of chemical resemblance due to the polymeric structure of {{chem, Ph, 2, SiO, which is not shared by {{chem, Ph, 2, CO.{{sfn, Greenwood, Earnshaw, 1997, p=361
Silicones may be considered analogous to mineral silicates, in which the methyl groups of the silicones correspond to the
isoelectronic <{{chem, O, − of the silicates.{{sfn, Greenwood, Earnshaw, 1997, p=361 They are quite stable to extreme temperatures, oxidation, and water, and have useful dielectric, antistick, and antifoam properties. Furthermore, they are resistant over long periods of time to ultraviolet radiation and weathering, and are inert physiologically. They are fairly unreactive, but do react with concentrated solutions bearing the hydroxide ion and fluorinating agents, and occasionally, may even be used as mild reagents for selective syntheses. For example, {{chem, (Me, 3, Si), 2, O is valuable for the preparation of derivatives of
molybdenum and
tungsten
Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first i ...
oxyhalides, converting a
tungsten hexachloride suspension in
dichloroethane solution quantitatively to {{chem, WOCl, 4 in under an hour at room temperature, and then to yellow {{chem, WO, 2, C, 2 at 100 °C in light petroleum at a yield of 95% overnight.{{sfn, Greenwood, Earnshaw, 1997, p=361
Occurrence

Silicon is the eighth most abundant element in the universe, coming after
hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical element ...
,
helium
Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic ta ...
,
carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetal
In chemistry, a nonmetal is a chemical element that generally lacks a predominance of metallic properties; they range from colorless gases (like ...
,
nitrogen,
oxygen
Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal
In chemistry, a nonmetal is a chemical element that generally la ...
,
iron
Iron () is a chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements ca ...
, and
neon
Neon is a chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements canno ...
. These abundances are not replicated well on Earth due to substantial separation of the elements taking place during the formation of the
Solar System. Silicon makes up 27.2% of the Earth's crust by weight, second only to oxygen at 45.5%, with which it always is associated in nature. Further fractionation took place in the formation of the Earth by
planetary differentiation:
Earth's core, which makes up 31.5% of the mass of the Earth, has approximate composition {{chem, Fe, 25, Ni, 2, Co, 0.1, S, 3; the
mantle makes up 68.1% of the Earth's mass and is composed mostly of denser oxides and silicates, an example being
olivine, {{chem, (Mg,Fe), 2, SiO, 4; while the lighter siliceous minerals such as
aluminosilicates rise to the surface and form the crust, making up 0.4% of the Earth's mass.{{sfn, Greenwood, Earnshaw, 1997, p=329
The crystallisation of
igneous rock
Igneous rock (derived from the Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as L ...
s from magma depends on a number of factors; among them are the chemical composition of the magma, the cooling rate, and some properties of the individual minerals to be formed, such as
lattice energy, melting point, and complexity of their crystal structure. As magma is cooled,
olivine appears first, followed by
pyroxene,
amphibole,
biotite mica,
orthoclase feldspar,
muscovite mica,
quartz,
zeolites, and finally, hydrothermal minerals. This sequence shows a trend toward increasingly complex silicate units with cooling, and the introduction of
hydroxide and
fluoride anions in addition to oxides. Many metals may substitute for silicon. After these igneous rocks undergo
weathering
Weathering is the deterioration of rocks, soil
Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquid
A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of ...
, transport, and deposition,
sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particl ...
s like clay, shale, and sandstone are formed.
Metamorphism
Metamorphism is the transformation of existing rock (the protolith) to rock with a different mineral composition or texture. Metamorphism takes place at temperatures in excess of , and often also at elevated pressure or in the presence of ...
also may occur at high temperatures and pressures, creating an even vaster variety of minerals.{{sfn, Greenwood, Earnshaw, 1997, p=329
There are four sources for silicon fluxes into the ocean include chemical weathering of continental rocks, river transport, dissolution of continental terrigenous silicates, and through the reaction between submarine basalts and hydrothermal fluid which release dissolved silicon. All four of these fluxes are interconnected in the ocean's biogeochemical cycle as they all were initially formed from the weathering of Earth's crust.
[{{cite journal , last1=Tréguer , first1=Paul J. , last2=De La Rocha , first2=Christina L. , title=The World Ocean Silica Cycle , journal=Annual Review of Marine Science , date=3 January 2013 , volume=5 , issue=1 , pages=477–501 , doi=10.1146/annurev-marine-121211-172346, pmid=22809182 ]
Approximately 300–900 megatonnes of Aeolian dust is deposited into the world's oceans each year. Of that value, 80–240 megatonnes are in the form of particulate silicon. The total amount of particulate silicon deposition into the ocean is still less than the amount of silicon influx into the ocean via riverine transportation.
[{{cite book , last1=Tegen , first1=Ina , last2=Kohfeld , first2=Karen , title=Atmospheric transport of silicon , date=2006 , publisher=Island Press , isbn=1-59726-115-7 , pages=81–91] Aeolian inputs of particulate lithogenic silicon into the North Atlantic and Western North Pacific oceans are the result of dust settling on the oceans from the Sahara and Gobi Desert, respectively.
Riverine transports are the major source of silicon influx into the ocean in coastal regions, while silicon deposition in the open ocean is greatly influenced by the settling of Aeolian dust.
Production
Silicon of 96–99% purity is made by reducing
quartzite
Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20&n ...
or sand with highly pure
coke. The reduction is carried out in an
electric arc furnace, with an excess of {{chem, SiO, 2 used to stop
silicon carbide
Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum (), is a hard chemical compound containing silicon and carbon. A semiconductor, it occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite, but has been mass-produced as a powder and crystal ...
(SiC) from accumulating:{{sfn, Greenwood, Earnshaw, 1997, p=330
:{{chem, SiO, 2 + 2 C → Si + 2 CO
:2 SiC + {{chem, SiO, 2 → 3 Si + 2 CO

This reaction, known as carbothermal reduction of silicon dioxide, usually is conducted in the presence of scrap iron with low amounts of
phosphorus and
sulfur
Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundance of the chemical elements, abundant, Polyvalency (chemistry), multivalent and nonmetallic. Under standard c ...
, producing
ferrosilicon.{{sfn, Greenwood, Earnshaw, 1997, p=330 Ferrosilicon, an iron-silicon alloy that contains varying ratios of elemental silicon and iron, accounts for about 80% of the world's production of elemental silicon, with China, the leading supplier of elemental silicon, providing 4.6 million
tonne
The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilogram
The kilogram (also kilogramme) is the unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI), having the unit symbol kg. It is a widely used measure in science ...
s (or 2/3rds of world output) of silicon, most of it in the form of ferrosilicon. It is followed by Russia (610,000 t), Norway (330,000 t), Brazil (240,000 t), and the United States (170,000 t). Ferrosilicon is primarily used by the iron and steel industry (see
below) with primary use as alloying addition in iron or steel and for de-oxidation of steel in integrated steel plants.{{sfn, Greenwood, Earnshaw, 1997, p=330
Another reaction, sometimes used, is aluminothermal reduction of silicon dioxide, as follows:
[{{harvnb, Zulehner, Neuer, Rau, p=574]
:3 {{chem, SiO, 2 + 4 Al → 3 Si + 2 {{chem, Al, 2, O, 3
Leaching powdered 96–97% pure silicon with water results in ~98.5% pure silicon, which is used in the chemical industry. However, even greater purity is needed for semiconductor applications, and this is produced from the reduction of
tetrachlorosilane (silicon tetrachloride) or
trichlorosilane. The former is made by chlorinating scrap silicon and the latter is a byproduct of
silicone
A silicone or polysiloxane is a polymer
A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + '' -mer'', "part")
is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their ...
production. These compounds are volatile and hence can be purified by repeated
fractional distillation, followed by reduction to elemental silicon with very pure
zinc
Zinc is a chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements cann ...
metal as the reducing agent. The spongy pieces of silicon thus produced are melted and then grown to form cylindrical single crystals, before being purified by
zone refining. Other routes use the thermal decomposition of
silane or
tetraiodosilane ({{chem, SiI, 4). Another process used is the reduction of
sodium hexafluorosilicate, a common waste product of the phosphate fertilizer industry, by metallic
sodium
Sodium is a chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements ca ...
: this is highly exothermic and hence requires no outside energy source.
Hyperfine silicon is made at a higher purity than almost any other material:
transistor production requires impurity levels in silicon crystals less than 1 part per 10
10, and in special cases impurity levels below 1 part per 10
12 are needed and attained.{{sfn, Greenwood, Earnshaw, 1997, p=330
Silicon nanostructures can directly be produced from silica sand using conventional metalothermic processes, or the combustion synthesis approach. Such nanostructured silicon materials can be used in various functional applications including the anode of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) or phorocatalytic applications.
Applications
Compounds
Most silicon is used industrially without being purified, and indeed, often with comparatively little processing from its natural form. More than 90% of the Earth's crust is composed of
silicate minerals, which are compounds of silicon and oxygen, often with metallic ions when negatively charged silicate anions require cations to balance the charge. Many of these have direct commercial uses, such as clays,
silica sand, and most kinds of building stone. Thus, the vast majority of uses for silicon are as structural compounds, either as the silicate minerals or silica (crude silicon dioxide). Silicates are used in making
Portland cement (made mostly of calcium silicates) which is used in
building mortar and modern
stucco
Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...
, but more importantly, combined with silica sand, and gravel (usually containing silicate minerals such as granite), to make the
concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most ...
that is the basis of most of the very largest industrial building projects of the modern world.{{sfn, Greenwood, Earnshaw, 1997, p=356
Silica is used to make
fire brick, a type of ceramic. Silicate minerals are also in whiteware
ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...
s, an important class of products usually containing various types of fired
clay minerals (natural aluminium phyllosilicates). An example is
porcelain
Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery
Potter ...
, which is based on the silicate mineral
kaolinite. Traditional
glass (silica-based
soda-lime glass) also functions in many of the same ways, and also is used for windows and containers. In addition, specialty silica based
glass fibers are used for
optical fiber, as well as to produce
fiberglass for structural support and
glass wool for thermal insulation.
Silicones often are used in
waterproofing
Waterproofing is the process of making an object or structure waterproof or water-resistant so that it remains relatively unaffected by water or resisting the ingress of water under specified conditions. Such items may be used in wet environme ...
treatments,
molding compounds, mold-
release agents, mechanical seals, high temperature
greases and waxes, and
caulking compounds. Silicone is also sometimes used in
breast implants, contact lenses,
explosives and
pyrotechnics
Pyrotechnics is the science and craft of creating such things as fireworks, safety matches, oxygen candles, explosive bolts and other fasteners, parts of automotive airbags, as well as gas-pressure blasting in mining, quarrying, and demolitio ...
.
Silly Putty was originally made by adding
boric acid to
silicone oil. Other silicon compounds function as high-technology abrasives and new high-strength ceramics based upon
silicon carbide
Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum (), is a hard chemical compound containing silicon and carbon. A semiconductor, it occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite, but has been mass-produced as a powder and crystal ...
. Silicon is a component of some
superalloys.
Alloys
Elemental silicon is added to molten
cast iron as
ferrosilicon or silicocalcium alloys to improve performance in casting thin sections and to prevent the formation of
cementite
Cementite (or iron carbide) is a compound of iron and carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetal
In chemistry, a nonmetal is a chemical element that generally lacks a predominance ...
where exposed to outside air. The presence of elemental silicon in molten iron acts as a sink for oxygen, so that the steel carbon content, which must be kept within narrow limits for each type of steel, can be more closely controlled. Ferrosilicon production and use is a monitor of the steel industry, and although this form of elemental silicon is grossly impure, it accounts for 80% of the world's use of free silicon. Silicon is an important constituent of
electrical steel, modifying its
resistivity and
ferromagnetic properties.
The properties of silicon may be used to modify alloys with metals other than iron. "Metallurgical grade" silicon is silicon of 95–99% purity. About 55% of the world consumption of metallurgical purity silicon goes for production of aluminium-silicon alloys (
silumin alloys) for aluminium part
casts, mainly for use in the
automotive industry
The automotive industry comprises a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industries by revenue
In ac ...
. Silicon's importance in aluminium casting is that a significantly high amount (12%) of silicon in aluminium forms a
eutectic mixture which solidifies with very little thermal contraction. This greatly reduces tearing and cracks formed from stress as casting alloys cool to solidity. Silicon also significantly improves the hardness and thus wear-resistance of aluminium.
[{{cite web, last=Apelian , first=D., date=2009 , url=http://www.diecasting.org/research/wwr/WWR_AluminumCastAlloys.pdf , title=Aluminum Cast Alloys: Enabling Tools for Improved Performance , publisher=North American Die Casting Association , location=Wheeling, Illinois, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106013105/http://www.diecasting.org/research/wwr/WWR_AluminumCastAlloys.pdf, archive-date=2012-01-06]
Electronics
{{main, Semiconductor device fabrication
{{see, Semiconductor industry

Most elemental silicon produced remains as a ferrosilicon alloy, and only approximately 20% is refined to metallurgical grade purity (a total of 1.3–1.5 million metric tons/year). An estimated 15% of the world production of metallurgical grade silicon is further refined to semiconductor purity.
This typically is the "nine-9" or 99.9999999% purity, nearly defect-free single
crystalline material.
Monocrystalline silicon of such purity is usually produced by the
Czochralski process, and is used to produce
silicon wafers used in the
semiconductor industry
The semiconductor industry is the aggregate of companies engaged in the design and fabrication of semiconductors and semiconductor devices, such as transistors and integrated circuits. It formed around 1960, once the fabrication of semic ...
, in electronics, and in some high-cost and high-efficiency
photovoltaic applications.
[ {{harvnb, Zulehner, Neuer, Rau, p=590] Pure silicon is an
intrinsic semiconductor, which means that unlike metals, it conducts
electron holes and electrons released from atoms by heat; silicon's
electrical conductivity increases with higher temperatures. Pure silicon has too low a conductivity (i.e., too high a
resistivity) to be used as a circuit element in electronics. In practice, pure silicon is
doped with small concentrations of certain other elements, which greatly increase its conductivity and adjust its electrical response by controlling the number and charge (
positive or
negative) of activated carriers. Such control is necessary for
transistors,
solar cells,
semiconductor detectors, and other
semiconductor devices used in the computer industry and other technical applications.
[{{harvnb, Zulehner, Neuer, Rau, p=573] In
silicon photonics, silicon may be used as a continuous wave
Raman laser medium to produce coherent light.
[{{cite journal , title=Ultrafast nonlinear all-optical processes in silicon-on-insulator waveguides , journal= Journal of Physics D , year=2008 , volume=40 , issue=14 , page=R249–R271 , doi=10.1088/0022-3727/40/14/r01
, bibcode=2007JPhD...40..249D , last1=Dekker , first1=R , last2=Usechak , first2=N , last3=Först , first3=M , last4=Driessen , first4=A, s2cid=123008652 ]
In common
integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuit
An electronic circuit is composed of individual electronic components, such as resistors, transis ...
s, a wafer of monocrystalline silicon serves as a mechanical support for the circuits, which are created by doping and insulated from each other by thin layers of
silicon oxide, an insulator that is easily produced on Si surfaces by processes of
thermal oxidation or
local oxidation (LOCOS), which involve exposing the element to oxygen under the proper conditions that can be predicted by the
Deal–Grove model. Silicon has become the most popular material for both high power semiconductors and integrated circuits because it can withstand the highest temperatures and greatest electrical activity without suffering
avalanche breakdown (an
electron avalanche is created when heat produces free electrons and holes, which in turn pass more current, which produces more heat). In addition, the insulating oxide of silicon is not soluble in water, which gives it an advantage over
germanium (an element with similar properties which can also be used in semiconductor devices) in certain fabrication techniques.
Monocrystalline silicon is expensive to produce, and is usually justified only in production of integrated circuits, where tiny crystal imperfections can interfere with tiny circuit paths. For other uses, other types of pure silicon may be employed. These include
hydrogenated amorphous silicon and upgraded metallurgical-grade silicon (UMG-Si) used in the production of low-cost,
large-area electronics in applications such as
liquid crystal display
A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but ...
s and of large-area, low-cost, thin-film
solar cells. Such semiconductor grades of silicon are either slightly less pure or polycrystalline rather than monocrystalline, and are produced in comparable quantities as the monocrystalline silicon: 75,000 to 150,000 metric tons per year. The market for the lesser grade is growing more quickly than for monocrystalline silicon. By 2013, polycrystalline silicon production, used mostly in solar cells, was projected to reach 200,000 metric tons per year, while monocrystalline semiconductor grade silicon was expected to remain less than 50,000 tons per year.
[Corathers, Lisa A]
2009 Minerals Yearbook
USGS
Quantum dots
Silicon quantum dots are created through the thermal processing of hydrogen
silsesquioxane into nanocrystals ranging from a few nanometers to a few microns, displaying size dependent
luminescent properties. The nanocrystals display large
Stokes shifts converting photons in the ultra-violet range to photons in the visible or infrared, depending on the particle size, allowing for applications in
quantum dot displays and
luminescent solar concentrators due to their limited self absorption. A benefit of using silicon based
quantum dots over
cadmium or
indium
Indium is a chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements cann ...
is the non-toxic, metal-free nature of silicon.
Another application of silicon quantum dots is for sensing of hazardous materials. The sensors take advantage of the luminescent properties of the quantum dots through
quenching of the photoluminescence in the presence of the hazardous substance. There are many methods used for hazardous chemical sensing with a few being electron transfer,
fluorescence resonance energy transfer, and photocurrent generation. Electron transfer quenching occurs when the
lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) is slightly lower in energy than the conduction band of the quantum dot, allowing for the transfer electrons between the two, preventing recombination of the holes and electrons within the nanocrystals. The effect can also be achieved in reverse with a donor molecule having its
highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) slightly higher than a valence band edge of the quantum dot, allowing electrons to transfer between them, filling the holes and preventing recombination. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer occurs when a complex forms between the quantum dot and a quencher molecule. The complex will continue to absorb light but when the energy is converted to the ground state it does not release a photon, quenching the material. The third method uses different approach by measuring the
photocurrent emitted by the quantum dots instead of monitoring the photoluminescent display. If the concentration of the desired chemical increases then the photocurrent given off by the nanocrystals will change in response.
Biological role

Although silicon is readily available in the form of
silicates, very few organisms use it directly.
Diatom
A diatom ( Neo-Latin ''diatoma''), "a cutting through, a severance", from el, διάτομος, diátomos, "cut in half, divided equally" from el, διατέμνω, diatémno, "to cut in twain". is any member of a large group comprising se ...
s,
radiolaria, and
siliceous sponges use
biogenic silica as a structural material for their skeletons. Some plants accumulate silica in their tissues and require silicon for their growth, for example
rice
Rice is the seed of the grass species
In biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For insta ...
. Silicon may be taken up by plants as
orthosilicic acid (also known as monosilicic acid) and transported through the
xylem, where it forms amorphous complexes with components of the cell wall. This has been shown to improve cell wall strength and structural integrity in some plants, thereby reducing insect herbivory and pathogenic infections. In certain plants, silicon may also upregulate the production of volatile organic compounds and phytohormones which play a significant role in plant defense mechanisms.
[{{cite journal , doi=10.1094/PHYTO.2002.92.10.1095 , pmid=18944220 , title=Silicon-Induced Cell Wall Fortification of Rice Leaves: A Possible Cellular Mechanism of Enhanced Host Resistance to Blast , journal=Phytopathology , volume=92, issue=10 , pages=1095–103 , year=2002 , last1=Kim , first1=Sang Gyu , last2=Kim , first2=Ki Woo , last3=Park , first3=Eun Woo , last4=Choi , first4=Doil, doi-access=free ][{{cite journal , last1=Leroy , first1=Nicolas , last2=de Tombeur , first2=Felix , last3=Walgraffe , first3=Yseult , last4=Cornelis , first4=Jean-Thomas , last5=Verheggen , first5=Francois , title=Silicon and plant natural defenses against insect pests: impact on plant volatile organic compounds and cascade effects on multitrophic interactions , journal=Plants , date=23 October 2019 , volume=8 , issue=444 , page=444 , doi=10.3390/plants8110444, pmid=31652861 , pmc=6918431 , doi-access=free ] In more advanced plants, the silica
phytoliths (opal phytoliths) are rigid microscopic bodies occurring in the cell.
[{{cite journal , last1=Exley , first1=C. , title=Silicon in life:A bioinorganic solution to bioorganic essentiality , journal=Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry , volume=69 , pages=139–144 , date=1998 , doi=10.1016/S0162-0134(97)10010-1 , issue=3][{{cite journal , last1=Epstein , first1=Emanuel , title=SILICON , journal=Annual Review of Plant Physiology and Plant Molecular Biology , volume=50 , date=1999 , pmid=15012222 , doi=10.1146/annurev.arplant.50.1.641 , pages=641–664]
Several
horticultural crops are known to protect themselves against
fungal plant pathogens with silica, to such a degree that
fungicide application may fail unless accompanied by sufficient silicon nutrition. Silicaceous plant defense molecules activate some
phytoalexins, meaning some of them are signalling substances producing
acquired immunity. When deprived, some plants will substitute with increased production of other defensive substances.
Life on Earth is largely composed of
carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetal
In chemistry, a nonmetal is a chemical element that generally lacks a predominance of metallic properties; they range from colorless gases (like ...
, but
astrobiology considers that
extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life, colloquially referred to as alien life, is life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defi ...
may have other
hypothetical types of biochemistry. Silicon is considered an alternative to carbon, as it can create complex and stable molecules with four covalent bonds, required for a
DNA-analog, and it is available in large quantities.
Marine microbial influences
Diatoms uses silicon in the biogenic silica ({{chem, BSIO, 2) form, which is taken up by the silicon transport protein (SIT) to be predominantly used in the cell wall structure as frustules. Silicon enters the ocean in a dissolved form such as silicic acid or silicate.
[{{Cite journal, last1=Dugdale, first1=R. C., last2=Wilkerson, first2=F. P., date=2001-12-30, title=Sources and fates of silicon in the ocean: the role of diatoms in the climate and glacial cycles, journal=Scientia Marina, volume=65, issue=S2, pages=141–152, doi=10.3989/scimar.2001.65s2141, issn=1886-8134, doi-access=free] Since diatoms are one of the main users of these forms of silicon, they contribute greatly to the concentration of silicon throughout the ocean. Silicon forms a nutrient-like profile in the ocean due to the diatom productivity in shallow depths.
Therefore, less concentration of silicon in the upper ocean and more concentrations of silicon in the deep/lower ocean.
Diatom productivity in the upper ocean contribute to the amount of silicon exported to the lower ocean. When diatom cells are lysed in the upper ocean, their nutrients like, iron, zinc, and silicon, are brought to the lower ocean through a process called marine snow. Marine snow involves the downward transfer of particulate organic matter by vertical mixing of dissolved organic matter. It has been suggested that silicon is considered crucial to diatom productivity and as long as there is silicic acid available for diatoms to use, the diatoms can contribute to other important nutrient concentrations in the deep ocean as well.
In coastal zones, diatoms serve as the major phytoplanktonic organisms and greatly contribute to biogenic silica production. In the open ocean, however, diatoms have a reduced role in global annual silica production. Diatoms in North Atlantic and North Pacific subtropical gyres only contribute about 5-7% of global annual marine silica production. The Southern Ocean produces about one-third of global marine biogenic silica.
The Southern Ocean is referred to as having a "biogeochemical divide" since only minuscule amounts of silicon are transported out of this region.
Human nutrition
There is some evidence that silicon is important to human health for their nail, hair, bone, and skin tissues, for example, in studies that demonstrate that premenopausal women with higher dietary silicon intake have higher
bone density, and that silicon supplementation can increase bone volume and density in patients with
osteoporosis.
[{{cite journal , last1=Jugdaohsingh , first1=R. , title=Silicon and bone health , journal=The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging , date=Mar–Apr 2007 , volume=11 , issue=2 , pages=99–110 , pmc=2658806 , pmid=17435952] Silicon is needed for synthesis of
elastin
Elastin is a protein
Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions ...
and
collagen
Collagen () is the main structural protein
Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalys ...
, of which the
aorta contains the greatest quantity in the human body,
[{{Cite book , last1=Loeper , first1=J. , last2=Fragny , first2=M. , title=The Physiological Role of the Silicon and its AntiAtheromatous Action , year=1978 , pages=281–296 , doi=10.1007/978-1-4613-4018-8_13 , journal=Biochemistry of Silicon and Related Problems , isbn=978-1-4613-4020-1] and has been considered an
essential element;
[{{cite journal , doi =10.1146/annurev.nu.04.070184.000321 , pages=21–41 , journal=Annual Review of Nutrition , volume=4 , date=1984 , title=Ultratrace Elements in Nutrition , first=Forrest H. , last=Nielsen , pmid=6087860] nevertheless, it is difficult to prove its essentiality, because silicon is very common, and hence, deficiency symptoms are difficult to reproduce.
[{{Cite book , publisher=University Science Books , isbn=978-0-935702-72-9 , page=411 , last=Lippard , first=Stephen J. , author2=Jeremy M. Berg , title =Principles of Bioinorganic Chemistry , year=1994 , location=Mill Valley, CA]
Silicon is currently under consideration for elevation to the status of a "plant beneficial substance by the Association of American Plant Food Control Officials (AAPFCO)."
[{{cite web , last1=Miranda , first1=Stephen R. , last2=Barker , first2=Bruce , title=Silicon: Summary of Extraction Methods , url=https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:SzfW40-2DDcJ:www.aapfco.org/AM09/LSC_Si_Methods_DC.ppt+aapfco+siicon&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESj4Jo-RFFj54kb6Sun3ikgJW9DMHzRAuUS045YkFErzE5NaSA084KvIyRxJp0IVX5ktDhaPPqcYLRx2hVu6K5YVWj95h2kgvkvDLQLyrxcJXXD3tQ3P5YLJ7J5F8rRYzenxznHp&sig=AHIEtbSPNk7BtSIpiRnvNI1F-2jSLN5LYA , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121112232117/https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache%3ASzfW40-2DDcJ%3Awww.aapfco.org%2FAM09%2FLSC_Si_Methods_DC.ppt+aapfco+siicon&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESj4Jo-RFFj54kb6Sun3ikgJW9DMHzRAuUS045YkFErzE5NaSA084KvIyRxJp0IVX5ktDhaPPqcYLRx2hVu6K5YVWj95h2kgvkvDLQLyrxcJXXD3tQ3P5YLJ7J5F8rRYzenxznHp&sig=AHIEtbSPNk7BtSIpiRnvNI1F-2jSLN5LYA , url-status=dead , archive-date=November 12, 2012 , publisher=Harsco Minerals , date=August 4, 2009 , access-date=2011-07-18 ]
Safety
People may be exposed to elemental silicon in the workplace by breathing it in, swallowing it, or having contact with the skin or eye. In the latter two cases, silicon poses a slight hazard as an irritant. It is hazardous if inhaled.
[{{cite web , url=http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9924921 , title=Material Safety Data Sheet: Silicon MSDS , author=Science Lab.com , website=sciencelab.com , access-date=11 March 2018 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180323183044/http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9924921 , archive-date=23 March 2018 , url-status=dead ] The
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set the
legal limit for silicon exposure in the workplace as 15 mg/m
3 total exposure and 5 mg/m
3 respiratory exposure over an eight-hour workday. The
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has set a
recommended exposure limit (REL) of 10 mg/m
3 total exposure and 5 mg/m
3 respiratory exposure over an eight-hour workday.
[{{cite web , title=CDC – NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards – Silicon , url=https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npg/npgd0554.html , website=www.cdc.gov , access-date=2015-11-21] Inhalation of
crystalline silica dust may lead to
silicosis, an
occupational lung disease marked by
inflammation
Inflammation (from la, inflammatio) is part of the complex biological response of body tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants, and is a protective response involving immune cells, blood vessels, and mol ...
and scarring in the form of
nodular lesions in the upper lobes of the
lungs
The lungs are the primary organs of the respiratory system in human
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large a ...
.
[{{cite book , author1=Jane A. Plant , author2=Nick Voulvoulis , author3=K. Vala Ragnarsdottir , title=Pollutants, Human Health and the Environment: A Risk Based Approach , journal=Applied Geochemistry , volume=26 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D3JS6NXez5oC&pg=PA273 , access-date=24 August 2012 , year=2012 , publisher=John Wiley & Sons , isbn=978-0-470-74261-7 , page=273, bibcode=2011ApGC...26S.238P , doi=10.1016/j.apgeochem.2011.03.113 ]
See also
{{colbegin
*
Amorphous silicon
*
Black silicon
*
Covalent superconductors
*
List of countries by silicon production
*
List of silicon producers
*
Monocrystalline silicon
*
Silicon Nanowires (SiNWs)
*
Polycrystalline silicon
*
Printed silicon electronics
*
Silicon tombac
*
Silicon Valley
*
Silicene
*
Transistor
{{colend
References
{{Reflist
Bibliography
* {{cite book , last1 =Clayden , first1 =Jonathan , author-link1 =Jonathan Clayden , last2 =Greeves , first2 =Nick , last3 =Warren , first3 =Stuart , author-link3 =Stuart Warren , title =Organic Chemistry , edition =2nd , publisher =Oxford University Press , date =2012 , isbn =978-0-19-927029-3
* {{Greenwood&Earnshaw2nd
* {{cite book , last=King , first=R. Bruce , date=1995 , title=Inorganic Chemistry of Main Group Elements , publisher=Wiley-VCH , isbn=978-0-471-18602-1
* {{Ullmann , first1=Werner , last1=Zulehner , first2=Bernd , last2=Neuer , first3=Gerhard , last3=Rau, title =Silicon , doi =10.1002/14356007.a23_721
* {{cite journal , first=Kamal Y. , last=Kamal , title=The Silicon Age: Trends in Semiconductor Devices Industry , journal=Journal of Engineering Science and Technology Review , volume=15 , issue=1 , pages=110–5 , date=2022 , url=http://www.jestr.org/downloads/Volume15Issue1/fulltext141512022.pdf , doi = 10.25103/jestr.151.14, s2cid = 249074588
{{Subject bar
, book1=Silicon
, book2=Period 3 elements
, book3=Carbon group
, book4=Chemical elements (sorted alphabetically)
, book5=Chemical elements (sorted by number)
, commons=y
, wikt=y
, wikt-search=silicon
, v=y
, v-search=Silicon
, b=y
, b-search=Wikijunior:The Elements/Silicon
External links
* {{Cite web, title=Silicon Video - The Periodic Table of Videos - University of Nottingham, url=http://www.periodicvideos.com/videos/014.htm, access-date=2021-06-08, website=www.periodicvideos.com
* {{Cite web, title=CDC - NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards - Silicon, url=https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npg/npgd0554.html, access-date=2021-06-08, website=www.cdc.gov
* {{Cite web, title=Physical properties of Silicon (Si), url=http://www.ioffe.ru/SVA/NSM/Semicond/Si/, access-date=2021-06-08, website=www.ioffe.ru
* {{cite AV media , url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gej9UZZAnQ4 , date=30 November 2022 , series=Asianometry , title=The Story of Solar-Grade Silicon
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