Silicon

Objects containing silicon:

-Silicon is the principal component of glass, cement, ceramics, most semiconductor devices, and silicones, a plastic substance.

-Without silicon, the material that microprocessors and memory chips are made, there would be no inexpensive computers, and telecommunications would be less powerful and more expensive.

-Silicon is a major ingredient in bricks

-Silicon is an important ingredient in steel

-Silicon is a refractory material used in making enamels and pottery. A colloidal dispersion of silicon in water is used as a coating agent and as an ingredient for certain enamels.

-Silicon dioxide is used as raw material to make elemental silicon and silicon carbide

-Forms compounds like Silicon carbide (SiC) which is nearly as hard as diamond and is used as an abrasive

-Sodium silicate, also known as water glass, is used in the production of soaps, adhesives and as an egg preservative

-Silicon tetrachloride is used to create smoke screens

Interesting Information about Silicon:

-Discovered by Jons Jakob Berzelius in 1824 in Sweden

-Over 90% of the Earth's crust is composed of silicate minerals, making silicon the second most abundant electropositive element in the Earth's crust after oxygen

-It is a metalloid with a marked metallic luster and is very brittle

-Its melting point is 1687 K

-Its boiling point is 3538 K

-Is found in minerals such asasbestos, feldspar, clay, granite, quartz, and mica

-Is the eighth most abundant element in the Universe

-Expands when frozen

-Is solid at room teperature

Atomic Number:

-The atomic number of an element is the number of protons in an atom

-Silicon's atomic number is 14

Atomic Mass:

-The mass number of an atom is the number of protons plus the number of neutrons