Si
14
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SIL-i-con
Silicon is a member of Group 14 (IVA) in the periodic table. The periodic table is a chart that shows how chemical elements are related to one another. Silicon is also part of the the carbon family. Other carbon family elements include carbon, germanium, tin, and lead. Silicon is a metalloid, one of only a very few elements that have characteristics of both metals and non-metals.
Silicon is the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust, exceeded only by oxygen. Many rocks and minerals contain silicon. Examples include sand, quartz, clays, flint, amethyst, opal, mica, feldspar, garnet, tourmaline, asbestos, talc, zircon, emerald, and aquamarine. Silicon never occurs as a free element. It is always combined with one or more other elements as a compound.
By the early 1800s, silicon was recognized as an element. But chemists had serious problems preparing pure silicon because it bonds (attaches) tightly to oxygen. It took chemists many years to find out how to separate silicon from oxygen. That task was finally accomplished in 1823 by Swedish chemist Jons Jakob Berzelius (1779-1848).
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