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Background Info

Basic Properties - A table of physical properties of silicon is shown here

History of Silicon - A brief history of silicon. Outlines, where silicon appeared throughout the history books.

Real Chemistry

Where does silicon come from? Out lines the process of how we obtain pure silicon from it natural ore.

Silicon, Silicone Silica or Silicate?Easily confused? then maybe this will clarify a few things

A Little Interesting

Interesting Facts Facts about silicon can be found here. Some interesting, some funny and some just plain absurd.

Usefull Links

Webelements This is the home page of chemistry's periodic table of the elements on the World-Wide Web

Chemdex The directory of chemistry on the world wide web since 1993. Contains thousands of links to chemistry related web sites.

RSC - Royal Society of Chemistry "The largest organization in europe for advancing the chemical science"

 

Confused about whats what? Well acually its really quite simple:

 

Silicon (Si) = The element that has an atomic number of 14 and which is also in group 14 of the periodic table.

Silicones = Silicones are simply polymers which have the general formula (R₂SiO₂)n or (RSiO₃)n. Where R is a straight terminal hydrocarbon chain, these are called siloxane polymers. Some small chain possibilities are where R = CH₃, C₂H₅ or C₆H₅ etc. These siloxane polymers are extreamly useful in industry for such products as flame retardants, lubricants, adhesives, additives and sealants.

 

Silica And Silicates -

Silica (SiO₂) = is a solid at room temperature and occurs in many different forms. Almost all of the forms are lattice structures made up from tetrahedral SiO₄ building blocks. Silica is usually found in the form of quartz (sand) although can be found as rock crystal, amethyst, agate, flint, jasper and opal. Silica gel is a colliodal form of silica which has many uses. Silica is the main constituent in the formation of glass. Most glass that is used to produce windows, glass bottles etc, is made from the following:

75% Silica, 15% Na₂O, 8% CaO, 2.7% Al₂O₃

Other impurities are often added to change the properties of the glass. Boron compounds may be added to increase the glass's resisitance to heat, forming the well known "Pyrex"

Silicate = A compound that contains both silicon and oxygen atoms and whoms framework is based on covelant made up from tetrahedal SiO₄ building blocks. This includes hundreds of minerals, all of which are accordingly called silicates.

Silicon is the second most abundant element in the Earth's Crust by weight and is most commonly found in the form of silica (SiO₂). Silica aka silicon dioxide is a silicate as it is a molecule containing one silicon atom and 2 oxygen atoms. There are many forms of silicates which are all derivitives of SiO₂, alot of which are differently coloured due to the presence of impurities. Many minerals are silicates containing metals such as iron, magnesium, aluminium and sodium.

There are three different crystalline structures (polymorphs) of SiO₂ but, when in its pure form, SiO₂ is quartz, and has a structure very similar to that of diamond. Billions of small particles of quartz can be found on beaches as sand. Quartz is an extreemly stable compound and thus is extreemly hard and robust. The structure of quartz can be seen below.

This is a simplified stucture of Silicon Dioxide. Silicon Dioxide contains Si-O-Si bonds which are not shown. Only the Si-Si bonds are shown to simply the diagram. This is perfectly acceptable

May 28, 2004 17:18