12 Interesting Facts about Silicon: Metalloid Atomic Element Number 14

1 You would not be reading this on your computer, laptop, tablet or phone if it weren’t for silicon, for this is the material from which the microchip is made. Silicon Valley is the nickname for a San Francisco Bay area which is home to a swathe of high-tech corporations that depend upon this element.

2 Silicon’s uses could not be more extreme. Silicon composite, known as flint provided the chisel from which to carve tools and weapons for early man. Several thousand years later, the base material is used to etch billions of transistors and conducting channels onto a tiny wafer of silicon to store vast amounts of information. The silicon chip.

Silicon Carbide Compound

3 Silicon Facts

Atomic number: 14

Atomic weight: 28.0855

State: bluish semi-metal

Category: metalloid

Melting point: 1,414°C (2,577 °F)

Boiling point: 3,265 °C (5,909 °F)

4 The earth’s crust’s second most abundant element is silicon (after oxygen) and is the eight most abundant element in the universe. Silicon is named after flint from where it is mostly found. The Latin name for flint is silicis.

5 Only in the later stages of a dying star is silicon produced, as oxygen is burned once all reserves of hydrogen, helium and carbon are exhausted.

6 Jöns Jakob Berzeluis, a Swedish chemist isolated silicon element for the first time in 1824 by heating potassium metal with potassium fluorosilicate.

7 Silicon dioxide is the chemical name for beach sand and the quartz crystal used in watches. Other natural compounds of silicon can be found in jasper, opal, amethyst and agate.

Common Uses of Silicon

8 Silica, soda ash and limestone compound is the substance we see through when looking out of a window: glass, or at ourselves when looking through the glass element of a mirror. Of course, these substances have to be heated to 1,700°C first.

Silicon Carbide and Silicon’s other Uses

Silicon Symbol

9 Silicone carbide’s hardness almost equals that of diamond and is used as industrial abrasives and polishing agents. But silicone’s uses can get rather mundane when one considers the heights it has achieved in the modern era. In the form of silicon dioxide, is used to make bricks, ceramics, feldspar and mica for the construction industry. Silicon is also used in the production of soaps, adhesives and bathroom sealants. Silicon tetrachloride is used by the military to produce smoke screens.

What is Asbestos and Mesothemiola?

10 And silicon can also get downright ugly, as it can take the form of a class of fibrous minerals that can emit ‘fibrils’ into the air if abraded or disturbed. This form of silicon is known as asbestos and can be found in any home built before 2000. Asbestos was useful for heat insulation, fire retardants and sound proofing, but workers inhaling silicon dust were in danger of developing silicosis, asbestosis or mesothemiola – inflammation or cancers of the lungs. Because of this, the use of asbestos has been phased out.

11 Incredibly, the very stuff used to make the microchip, glass and industrial substances provides the silicone filler for breast implants, introduced in the 1960s. This expanded to other cosmetic fillers. Much controversy now exists about the health risks if the filler leaks but silicone implants remains popular to this day.

12 Silicon is needed in trace amounts for bone health and to treat osteoporosis as it aids collagen synthesis with bone. It is also taken as a mineral supplement to improve hair, nail and skin health as well as support for the immune system.