Silicon
['sɪlɪk(ə)n] or ['sɪlɪkən]
Definition
(noun.) a tetravalent nonmetallic element; next to oxygen it is the most abundant element in the earth's crust; occurs in clay and feldspar and granite and quartz and sand; used as a semiconductor in transistors.
Editor: Simon--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A nonmetalic element analogous to carbon. It always occurs combined in nature, and is artificially obtained in the free state, usually as a dark brown amorphous powder, or as a dark crystalline substance with a meetallic luster. Its oxide is silica, or common quartz, and in this form, or as silicates, it is, next to oxygen, the most abundant element of the earth's crust. Silicon is characteristically the element of the mineral kingdom, as carbon is of the organic world. Symbol Si. Atomic weight 28. Called also silicium.
Edited by Annabel
Examples
- His notes include the use of powdered silicon mixed with lime or other very infusible non-conductors or semi-conductors. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- We tried silicon and boron, and a lot of things that I have forgotten now. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- In these were found large quantities of iron, considerable percentages of nickel, as well as cobalt, copper, silicon, phosphorus, c arbon, magnesium, zinc, and manganese. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- This stirring admitted air to the mass and the oxygen consumed and expelled the carbon, silicon, and other impurities. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- He also placed some of these refractory metals directly in the circuit, bringing them to incandescence, and used silicon in powdered form in glass tubes placed in the electric circuit. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- To bring it into wrought iron, which is malleable and ductile, it is puddled and refined, which involves chiefly the burning out of the carbon and silicon. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- The effect of this was to burn out the impurities, silicon, carbon, sulphur, and phosphorus, leaving the mass a pure soft iron. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- In addition Davy anticipated the isolation of silicon, aluminium, and zirconium. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- A great variety of methods for coating incandescent lamp filaments with silicon, titanium, chromium, osmium, boron, etc. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
Edited by Kelsey