The properties of silicone offer numerous benefits. Here are a few ways that both manufacturers and end-users can benefit from its unique characteristics:

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• Silicones are safe. They are one of the go-to materials for making implantable medical devices.
• Silicones have good dimensional stability. They maintain their strength and shape over a wide range of temperatures.
• Silicones are chemically non-reactive in most environments. They do not degrade under exposure to moisture, fuels and oils, heat, cold, salt spray, or ultraviolet light.
• Silicones can take any shape. Silicones come as liquids, viscous pastes, rubbery sheets, and hard, plastic-like consistencies. They can be used as coatings, made into injection- or compression-molded parts, stamped, formed into tubing, and used as lubricants. 

Where Is Silicone Typically Prepared?

Chemical factories produce raw silicone materials. These facilities can process the required chemical precursors and catalysts in bulk, repeatedly, and precisely. 

In the factory, silica (usually from sand) is turned into silicon in a high-temperature reaction with carbon. Through a sequence of complex chemical reactions, the silicon is then combined with water and methanol to form basic silicone products packaged as liquids, gels, or sheets. Component fabricators then apply the appropriate molding or other industrial processes to create final products for customers.

What Is Silicone's Chemical Composition?

Silicone, technically referred to as &#;polysiloxane,&#; consists of a chain of alternating silicon and oxygen atoms. Silicon atoms, like carbon atoms, have space for four covalent bonds with other atoms. Two of those spots are occupied by oxygen atoms, one on each side. The other two spots will bond with other molecular groups that are available. The general chemical formula for silicone is [R2SiO]n. &#;R&#; indicates whatever groups are attached to the silicon atoms. The most common, basic silicone has methyl groups (CH3) attached in the available slots, yielding an inorganic (since it is not carbon-based) polymeric structure. Technically, this is called polydimethylsiloxane.

Figure 1 below shows the structure of polydimethylsiloxane:

silicon

chemical element

Also known as: Si

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silicon (Si), a nonmetallic chemical element in the carbon family (Group 14 [IVa] of the periodic table). Silicon makes up 27.7 percent of Earth&#;s crust; it is the second most abundant element in the crust, being surpassed only by oxygen.

Jöns Jacob Berzelius

Jöns Jacob Berzelius, detail of an oil painting by Olof Johan Södermark, ; in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm.

The name silicon derives from the Latin silex or silicis, meaning &#;flint&#; or &#;hard stone.&#; Amorphous elemental silicon was first isolated and described as an element in by Jöns Jacob Berzelius, a Swedish chemist. Impure silicon had already been obtained in . Crystalline elemental silicon was not prepared until , when it was obtained as a product of electrolysis. In the form of rock crystal, however, silicon was familiar to the predynastic Egyptians, who used it for beads and small vases; to the early Chinese; and probably to many others of the ancients. The manufacture of glass containing silica was carried out both by the Egyptians&#;at least as early as bce&#;and by the Phoenicians. Certainly, many of the naturally occurring compounds called silicates were used in various kinds of mortar for construction of dwellings by the earliest people.

Element Propertiesatomic number14atomic weight28.086melting point1,410 °C (2,570 °F)boiling point3,265 °C (5,909 °F)density2.33 grams/cm3oxidation state&#;4, (+2), +4electron configuration1s22s22p63s23p2

Properties of the element

Elemental silicon is produced commercially by the reduction of silica (SiO2) with coke in an electric furnace, and the impure product is then refined. On a small scale, silicon can be obtained from the oxide by reduction with aluminum. Almost pure silicon is obtained by the reduction of silicon tetrachloride or trichlorosilane. For use in electronic devices, single crystals are grown by slowly withdrawing seed crystals from molten silicon.

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silicon

Purified silicon, a metalloid.

Pure silicon is a hard, dark gray solid with a metallic lustre and with a octahedral crystalline structure the same as that of the diamond form of carbon, to which silicon shows many chemical and physical similarities. The reduced bond energy in crystalline silicon renders the element lower melting, softer, and chemically more reactive than diamond. A brown, powdery, amorphous form of silicon has been described that also has a microcrystalline structure.

Because silicon forms chains similar to those formed by carbon, silicon has been studied as a possible base element for silicon organisms. The limited number of silicon atoms that can catenate, however, greatly reduces the number and variety of silicon compounds compared with those of carbon. The oxidation&#;reduction reactions do not appear to be reversible at ordinary temperatures. Only the 0 and +4 oxidation states of silicon are stable in aqueous systems.

Silicon, like carbon, is relatively inactive at ordinary temperatures; but when heated it reacts vigorously with the halogens (fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine) to form halides and with certain metals to form silicides. As is true with carbon, the bonds in elemental silicon are strong enough to require large energies to activate, or promote, reaction in an acidic medium, so it is unaffected by acids except hydrofluoric. At red heat, silicon is attacked by water vapour or by oxygen, forming a surface layer of silicon dioxide. When silicon and carbon are combined at electric furnace temperatures (2,000&#;2,600 °C [3,600&#;4,700 °F]), they form silicon carbide (carborundum, SiC), which is an important abrasive. With hydrogen, silicon forms a series of hydrides, the silanes. When combined with hydrocarbon groups, silicon forms a series of organic silicon compounds.

Three stable isotopes of silicon are known: silicon-28, which makes up 92.21 percent of the element in nature; silicon-29, 4.70 percent; and silicon-30, 3.09 percent. Five radioactive isotopes are known.

Elemental silicon and most silicon-containing compounds appear to be nontoxic. Indeed, human tissue often contains 6 to 90 milligrams of silica (SiO2) per 100 grams dry weight, and many plants and lower forms of life assimilate silica and use it in their structures. Inhalation of dusts containing alpha SiO2, however, produces a serious lung disease called silicosis, common among miners, stonecutters, and ceramic workers, unless protective devices are used.

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