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What the name
means: The name silicon originates
from the Latin words silex and
silicis, used to describe a hard
mineral, such as flint. When it was first
isolated as an element in 1824, it was
given the name silicium for a short time
because it was thought to be a metal. Its
name was changed to silicon once chemists
realised that it shared more properties with
carbon than any of the metals.
Who
identified silicon? Antoine
Lavoisier was probably the first chemist to
recognise silicon as an element in 1787.
Silicon was isolated in an impure form by
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and
Louis Jacques Thénard in 1811, but it was
Jöns Jakob Berzelius, in 1824, who
succeeded in isolation pure silicon from a
mineral called flint.
About silicon:
It is the major component of many of
the different rocks and minerals found in
the Earth’s crust and that makes silicon
the second most common element found in the
Earth. Silicon does not exist separately as
an element in nature but it is abundant as
silica (a compound of silicon and oxygen)
and silicates (compounds made from silicon,
oxygen and a metal, such as aluminium and
iron). Sand, granite, quartz and opal are
all forms of silica. Mica and clay contain
silicates.
Silicon is very
important in the “High Tech” industry since
it is used to control the electric current
in components used for making computers and
other digital hardware. The area in
California where many of these components
are made and assembled is called Silicon
Valley. |
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