Both naturally occurring and synthetically produced silicates are important in building materials, absorbents, and ion exchangers.
Sodium silicates, commonly known as water glass, or silicate of soda, are used in soaps, in the treatment of wood to prevent decay, for the preservation of eggs, as a cement, and in dyeing. Silicates, most of which are insoluble in water, are employed in making glass as well as in the fabrication of enamels, pottery, china, and other ceramic materials. Silica (silicon dioxide) is useful as an abrasive, in the production of glass and other ceramic bodies, and as an adsorbent. As the mineral quartz, the compound may be softened by heating and shaped into glassware. Silica in the form of sand and clay is used to make concrete and bricks as well as refractory materials for high-temperature applications. The most important compounds of silicon are the dioxide (silica) and the various silicates. Silicon of lesser purity is used in metallurgy as a reducing agent and as an alloying element in steel, aluminum, brass, and bronze. 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.
These electrons allow semiconduction of the negative ( n) type. 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. The positive holes created by the shift in electrons allow extrinsic semiconduction of a type referred to as positive ( p). Addition of an element such as boron, an atom of which 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. Silicon’s atomic structure makes it an extremely important semiconductor ( see crystal: Electric properties), and silicon is the most important semiconductor in the electronics and technology sector. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.
#SILICON ATOM HOW TO#
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