Silicon+by+eckomanrb

Silicon-Si by Eckomanrb Many people don't know about the element Silicon or Si. D id you know that the 14th element, silicon has always been around you? It’s in many things that surround you including computer chips, lubricants, concrete, bricks, medicine, and in various synthetic plastic substances. In other words it makes part of technology, what you stand on, what you take when you’re sick, and in glass. Another thing that silicon is used for is for the metabolism of plants because it’s important to their system. To get all of these wonderful things they need to first find silicon. [|Silicon] or Si makes 25.7% of the Earth by weight, which makes it the second most abundant element on Earth. It is also found in the sun, meteorites, Earth’s crust such as sand, rocks, and gems, and bodies of water.

Silicon was isolated many times before it was actually identified by the scientist [|Antoine Lavoisier] in 1787. The first people that isolated silicon by accident were Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac (1778-1850) and Louis-Jaques Thenard (1777-1857) when they accidentally combined a colorless gas called tetrafluoride (SiF4) to the metal potassium, which caused all other elements to wash out except for silicon with fluorine and then used it to wash all other elements from a metal to only leave silicon left. After Joseph-Louis and Louis-Jacques isolated it, Jons Jacob Berzelius purified it. After the discovery of silicon, the Romans took the most credit and named it using the Latin word "Silex" (flint). Following the name there were 6 places around the world that are named after this element because it is found here. They are Silicon Valley in California, Silicon in Oregon, Silicon Hills in Austin, Silicon Saxony in Germany, Silicon Valley in India, and Silicon Border in Mexicali Mexicali.

For the reason that [|Silicon] is the fourteenth element, its atomic umber is 14. This means that silicon has 14 protons, which are particles in atoms that are found in the nucleus and have a positive charged, and electrons, which are also particles in an atom, but instead is found outside the nucleus and is negatively charged. Silicon also has an atomic weight of 28, which with some math you can find the number of neutrons in Silicon by subtracting the atomic weight by the atomic number. 28-14=**14** This means Silicon has 14 neutrons!, Which are particles that are found in the nucleus that has neutral charge. All of this is shown in a traditional Bohr Model that shows the nucleus with its 14 protons and its 14 neutrons and it shows the orbits or energy levels which contain the electrons of its atoms. The Bohr model also shows that silicon is an "unhappy" element because it doesnt' have a sufficient amount of electrons because in an atom, the first energy level should have 2 electrons, which silicon can provide, next in the second energy level should have 8 electrons which can also be provided. Now on the third energy level there is needed another 8 elements but silicon can only provide 4 more electrons so it needs 4 more electrons that can only be provided by another element.

Silicon is also known for its chemical reactions with other elements to create new substances. Silicon reacts with air, water, halogens, acids, bases, and fluorine. For example when silicon combines with dust it creates silicaceous dust, that if breathed can cause a serious lung disease know as silicosis. In addition silicon is an important ingredient of steel, it can combine with sodium to make a compound and can combine with fluorine to create tetrafluorine. As I said if you combine tetrafluoride with a steel it will washed out all other elements and leaves silicon alone. Now you can see that silicon can combine to create useful things or can create disease.

Another important things of silicon is its physical characteristics. Silicon is a metalloid which means it is half metal and half non-metal. Another thing is that silicon's density is 2.3g/cm3 and its liquid density is 2.6g/cm3. Silicon has a melting point and a boiling which are 1410ºC for melting point and 2355ºC for boiling point. When crystallizes it becomes and diamond cubic crystal structure. It can be found in rocks like amethyst, agate, quartz, rock, crystal, chalcedony, flint, jasper, and opal which give silicon a variety of colors and structures. Thanks for learning!

Works Cited "Chemical Elements.com - Silicon (Si)." //Chemical Elements.com - An Interactive Periodic Table of the Elements//. Web. 08 June 2010. . "Chemical Elements.com - Silicon (Si)." //Chemical Elements.com - An Interactive Periodic Table of the Elements//. Web. 08 June 2010. . //Dynamic Periodic Table//. Web. 08 June 2010. . Gray, Theodore W., and Nick Mann. //The Elements: a Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe//. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2009. Print. "Silicon | Essential Information." //WebElements Periodic Table of the Elements//. Web. 08 June 2010. . Thomas, Jens. //Silicon//. New York: Benchmark, 2002. Print. Thomas, Jens. //Silicon//. New York: Benchmark, 2002. Print. //Welcome to Flickr - Photo Sharing//. Web. 08 June 2010. . //Welcome to Flickr - Photo Sharing//. Web. 08 June 2010. .