Silicon

Silicon

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Si • PDF Entry 00-027-1402

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What is Silicon?

It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster.

Silicon 3D Structure

Silicon in electronics

The 3D Structure found in a PDF entry shows the three-dimensional representations of molecular structures. Click the play button to see the structure in 360 degrees.

Inventors and companies use Silicon as a key component in various industrial applications.

Think you know Silicon?

Great! Let's test your knowledge of these fascinating facts about Silicon.

Polymers of Silicon

The word polymer comes from the Greek words for “many parts".

Silicides

Silanes

Halides

Silica

Silicic Acids

Silicate Minerals

Silicon is a chemical element; it has symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic table: carbon is above it; and germanium, tin, lead, and flerovium are below it. It is relatively unreactive. Silicon (Si) element is a significant element that is essential for several physiological and metabolic processes in plants. Si is widely regarded as the predominant semiconductor material due to its versatile applications in various electrical devices such as transistors, solar cells, integrated circuits, and others. These may be due to its significant band gap, expansive optical transmission range, extensive absorption spectrum, surface roughening, and effective anti-reflection coating. 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 anions 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.

Silicon’s atomic structure makes it an extremely important semiconductor, and silicon is the most important semiconductor in the electronics and technology sector. The addition of an element such as boron, an atom of that can be substituted for a silicon atom in the crystal structure but which provides one less valence electron (boron is an acceptor atom) than silicon, allows silicon atoms to lose electrons to it. The positive holes created by the shift in electrons allow extrinsic semiconduction of a type referred to as positive (p). The addition of an element such as arsenic, an atom of which can also be substituted for a silicon atom in the crystal but which provides an extra valence electron (arsenic is a donor atom), releases its electron within the lattice. These electrons allow semiconduction of the negative (n) type. Highly purified silicon, doped (infused) with such elements as boron, phosphorus, and arsenic, is commonly known as a silicon wafer and is the basic material used in computer chips, integrated circuits, transistors, silicon diodes, liquid crystal displays, and various other electronic and switching devices.