The Element Silicon

Name

Institution

The element Silicon (Si) is a period three metalloid of atomic number 14. The element has atomic standard weight of 28.085 and an electronic configuration of [Ne] 3s23p2 which yields a basic shell structure of 2, 8, 4,. The metalloid is generally solid and attains a melting point of 1687 K. and boiling point of 3538 K. At about room temperature the element has a density of 2.3290 g.cm-3. Silicon is widely used in building and construction as well as a number of electronic appliances (Doran & Cather, 2013). Silicon is the eight most widely distributed elements on the planet but also occur in other planets in various forms.

Silica is predominantly used in building and construction in various forms. In clay or silica sand or stone, it can be mixed with cement for mortar and can be mixed with gravel to produce concrete. A substantial quantity is used in both steel and aluminum casting. A small portion of pure and refined Silicon is used in the very manufacture of semiconductor diodes. Whereas only very few animals and plants utilize the element in their systems, it is basically not very critical to plant or animal life. Naturally occurring Silicon occurs predominantly in three Isotopes but only one is occurring significantly. They are Silicon-28, Silicon-30 and Silicon-29. The most abundant isotope though is the Si-28. Many places derive their names from the element like the famous Silicon Valley in California, Saxony in Germany, Silicon Glen in Scotland and Silicon Fen in England just to list a few.

Due to its relative stability and low tendency to react in its bonded state, silicon is used in the construction sector where stable compounds are desirable. However, the metalloid can be made to react under very controlled chemical and physical environments. Silicon is used in the manufacture of ceramics and glass. White-ware ceramics contain a good proportion of silicates too. Kaolinite which is often used in the manufacture of porcelain is a derivative of Silicon. Moreover, civilization has advanced through many years in the use of various silica compounds in the field of construction. Variants of the element that occur in compounds produce astoundingly beautiful natural materials.

The most important and popular use of the metalloid is in building and construction. Silicon is mixed with cement to produce concrete and with mortar. These are the most important traditional building materials. Silicon is also used in the production of burnt bricks and this is also a popular use across many societies globally. Although the naturally occurring oxides of the metalloid are uncreative, pure silica is reactive (Lau, Büyüköztürk & Buehler, 2012). Silica readily reacts with halogens in its pure form to yield Silicon Halides. However, Carbon is more reactive than the metalloid in the same category of the periodic table. The metalloid also reacts with dilute acids to forms various compounds used in material science and in wide variety of applications.

In conclusion, Silicon is generally a hard metalloid and occurs in combined form in nature. Pure states of the metalloid can be achieved through an industrial process and the most common usage of the metalloid is in the construction industry. The metalloid has both a high melting and boiling points due to strong inter-atomic bonds which are predominantly covalent. The element is one of the most popular and abundant element in nature and occurs in planetoids and other planets.

References

Doran, D., & Cather, B. (Eds.). (2013). Construction materials reference book. Routledge.

Lau, D., Büyüköztürk, O., & Buehler, M. J. (2012). Characterization of the intrinsic strength between epoxy and silica using a multiscale approach. Journal of Materials Research, 27(14), 1787-1796.

Sakamoto, N., Ikeda, C., Yamamura, M., & Nabeshima, T. (2011). Structural Interconversion and Regulation of Optical Properties of Stable Hypercoordinate Dipyrrin− Silicon Complexes. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 133(13), 4726-4729.