|
Amorphous Silica
Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , commonly found in nature as quartz. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one of the most complex and abundant families of materials, existing as a compound of several minerals and as a synthetic product. Examples include fused quartz, fumed silica, opal, and aerogels. It is used in structural materials, microelectronics, and as components in the food and pharmaceutical industries. All forms are white or colorless, although impure samples can be colored. Silicon dioxide is a common fundamental constituent of glass. Structure In the majority of silicon dioxides, the silicon atom shows tetrahedral coordination, with four oxygen atoms surrounding a central Si atomsee 3-D Unit Cell. Thus, SiO2 forms 3-dimensional network solids in which each silicon atom is covalently bonded in a tetrahedral manner to 4 oxygen atoms. In contrast, CO2 is a linear m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birefringence
Birefringence, also called double refraction, is the optical property of a material having a refractive index that depends on the polarization and propagation direction of light. These optically anisotropic materials are described as birefringent or birefractive. The birefringence is often quantified as the maximum difference between refractive indices exhibited by the material. Crystals with non-cubic crystal structures are often birefringent, as are plastics under mechanical stress. Birefringence is responsible for the phenomenon of double refraction whereby a ray of light, when incident upon a birefringent material, is split by polarization into two rays taking slightly different paths. This effect was first described by Danish scientist Rasmus Bartholin in 1669, who observed it in Iceland spar (calcite) crystals which have one of the strongest birefringences. In the 19th century Augustin-Jean Fresnel described the phenomenon in terms of polarization, understanding ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aerogel
Aerogels are a class of manufacturing, synthetic porous ultralight material derived from a gel, in which the liquid component for the gel has been replaced with a gas, without significant collapse of the gel structure. The result is a solid with extremely low density and extremely low thermal conductivity. Aerogels can be made from a variety of chemical compounds. Silica aerogels feel like fragile expanded polystyrene, styrofoam to the touch, while some polymer-based aerogels feel like rigid foams. Aerogels are produced by extracting the liquid component of a gel through supercritical drying or freeze-drying. This allows the liquid to be slowly dried off without causing the solid matrix in the gel to collapse from capillary action, as would happen with conventional evaporation. The first aerogels were produced from silica gels. Kistler's later work involved aerogels based on alumina, Chromium(III) oxide, chromia, and tin dioxide. Carbon aerogels were first developed in the late ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diatomaceous Earth
Diatomaceous earth ( ), also known as diatomite ( ), celite, or kieselguhr, is a naturally occurring, soft, siliceous rock, siliceous sedimentary rock that can be crumbled into a fine white to off-white powder. It has a particle size ranging from more than 3 millimeter, mm to less than 1 micrometre, μm, but typically 10 to 200 μm. Depending on the granularity, this powder can have an abrasive feel, similar to pumice powder, and has a low density as a result of its high porosity. The typical chemical composition of oven-dried diatomaceous earth is 80–90% silica, with 2–4% aluminum oxide, alumina (attributed mostly to clay minerals), and 0.5–2% iron oxide. Diatomaceous earth consists of the fossilized remains of diatoms, a type of hard-shelled microalgae, that have accumulated over millions of years. It is used as a filtration aid, mild abrasive in products including metal polishes and toothpaste, mechanical insecticide, absorption (chemistry), absorbent for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coesite
Coesite () is a form (polymorphism (materials science), polymorph) of silicon dioxide (silicon, Sioxide, O2) that is formed when very high pressure (2–3 gigapascals), and moderately high temperature (), are applied to quartz. Coesite was first synthesized by Loring Coes, Jr., a chemist at the Norton Company, in 1953. The word ''coesite'' is pronounced as "Coze-ite", after chemist Loring Coes, Jr. Occurrences In 1960, a natural occurrence of coesite was reported by Edward C. T. Chao, in collaboration with Eugene Shoemaker, from Barringer Crater, in Arizona, US, which was evidence that the crater must have been formed by an impact. After this report, the presence of coesite in unmetamorphosed rocks was taken as evidence of a meteorite impact event or of an atomic bomb explosion. It was not expected that coesite would survive in high pressure metamorphic rocks. In metamorphic rocks, coesite was initially described in eclogite xenoliths from the mantle (geology), mantle of the Ear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stishovite
Stishovite is an extremely hard, dense tetragonal form ( polymorph) of silicon dioxide. It is very rare on the Earth's surface; however, it may be a predominant form of silicon dioxide in the Earth, especially in the lower mantle. Stishovite was named after , a Soviet high-pressure physicist who first synthesized the mineral in 1961. It was then discovered in Meteor Crater in 1962 by Edward C. T. Chao. Unlike other silica polymorphs, the crystal structure of stishovite resembles that of rutile (TiO2). The silicon in stishovite adopts an octahedral coordination geometry, being bound to six oxides. Similarly, the oxides are three-connected, unlike low-pressure forms of SiO2. In most silicates, silicon is tetrahedral, being bound to four oxides. It was long considered the hardest known oxide (~30 GPa Vickers); however, boron suboxide has been discovered in 2002 to be much harder. At normal temperature and pressure, stishovite is metastable. Stishovite can be separated from qu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cristobalite
Cristobalite ( ) is a mineral polymorph of silica that is formed at very high temperatures. It has the same chemical formula as quartz, Si O2, but a distinct crystal structure. Both quartz and cristobalite are polymorphs with all the members of the quartz group, which also include coesite, tridymite and stishovite. It is named after Cerro San Cristóbal in Pachuca Municipality, Hidalgo, Mexico. It is used in dentistry as a component of alginate impression materials as well as for making models of teeth. Properties Metastability Cristobalite is stable only above 1470 °C, but can crystallize and persist metastably at lower temperatures. The persistence of cristobalite outside its thermodynamic stability range occurs because the transition from cristobalite to quartz or tridymite is "reconstructive", requiring the breaking up and reforming of the silica framework. These frameworks are composed of SiO4 tetrahedra in which every oxygen atom is shared with a neig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tridymite
Tridymite is a high-temperature polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of silica and usually occurs as minute tabular white or colorless pseudo-hexagonal crystals, or scales, in cavities in felsic volcanic rocks. Its chemical formula is silicon, Sioxygen, O2. Tridymite was first described in 1868 and the Type locality (geology), type location is in Hidalgo, Mexico. The name is from the Greek (language), Greek ''tridymos'' for ''triplet'' as tridymite commonly occurs as Crystal twinning, twinned crystal ''wikt:trilling, trillings'' (compound crystals comprising three twinned crystal components). Structure Tridymite can occur in seven crystalline forms. Two of the most common at standard pressure are known as α and β. The α-tridymite phase is favored at elevated temperatures (above 870 °C) and it converts to β-cristobalite at 1,470 °C. However, tridymite does usually not form from pure β-quartz, one needs to add trace amounts of certain compounds to achieve t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Double Bond Rule
In chemistry, the double bond rule states that elements with a principal quantum number (''n'') greater than 2 for their valence electrons ( period 3 elements and higher) tend not to form multiple bonds (e.g. double bonds and triple bonds). Double bonds for these heavier elements, when they exist, are often weak due to poor orbital overlap between the ''n''>2 orbitals of the two atoms. Although such compounds are not intrinsically unstable, they instead tend to dimerize or even polymerize In polymer chemistry, polymerization (American English), or polymerisation (British English), is a process of reacting monomer molecules together in a chemical reaction to form polymer chains or three-dimensional networks. There are many form .... Moreover, the multiple bonds of the elements with ''n''=2 are much stronger than usual, because lone pair repulsion weakens their sigma bonding but not their pi bonding. An example is the rapid polymerization that occurs upon condensation of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tetrahedral Molecular Geometry
In a tetrahedral molecular geometry, a central atom is located at the center with four substituents that are located at the corners of a tetrahedron. The bond angles are arccos(−) = 109.4712206...° ≈ 109.5° when all four substituents are the same, as in methane () as well as its heavier analogues. Methane and other perfectly symmetrical tetrahedral molecules belong to point group ''Td'', but most tetrahedral molecules have lower symmetry. Tetrahedral molecules can be chiral. Tetrahedral bond angle The bond angle for a symmetric tetrahedral molecule such as CH4 may be calculated using the dot product of two vectors. As shown in the diagram at left, the molecule can be inscribed in a cube with the tetravalent atom (e.g. carbon) at the cube centre which is the origin of coordinates, O. The four monovalent atoms (e.g. hydrogens) are at four corners of the cube (A, B, C, D) chosen so that no two atoms are at adjacent corners linked by only one cube edge. If the edge len ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SiO2repeat
Silicon monoxide is the chemical compound with the formula SiO where silicon is present in the oxidation state +2. In the vapour phase, it is a diatomic molecule. It has been detected in stellar objects and has been described as the most common oxide of silicon in the universe.Peter Jutzi and Ulrich Schubert (2003) ''Silicon chemistry: from the atom to extended systems''. Wiley-VCH . Solid form When SiO gas is cooled rapidly, it condenses to form a brown/black polymeric glassy material, (SiO)''n'', which is available commercially and used to deposit films of SiO. Glassy (SiO)''n'' is air and moisture sensitive. Oxidation Its surface readily oxidizes in air at room temperature, giving an SiO2 surface layer that protects the material from further oxidation. However, (SiO)''n'' irreversibly disproportionates into SiO2 and Si in a few hours between 400 °C and 800 °C and very rapidly between 1,000 °C and 1,440 °C, although the reaction does not go to comple ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
