Silicon connects rocks, glass, and electronics through distinct chemical forms. Silica and silicates are major ingredients of familiar mineral materials. Highly purified elemental silicon is used in electronic devices, where small additions of selected elements control electrical behavior. Silicones are a different family of silicon-containing polymers.
FROM ELEMENT TO APPLICATION
AN ELEMENT IN CONTEXT
Why does doped silicon still need device structure?
Purified, deliberately doped elemental silicon
FOLLOW THIS RELATIONSHIP
Control the crystal material
Purification and crystal growth establish a controlled silicon material, providing a starting point whose electrical behavior can be modified deliberately rather than by uncontrolled impurities.
Flint, sand, and glass made silicon compounds part of human material culture long before the element was isolated. Gay-Lussac and Thénard obtained an impure sample in 1811; Berzelius prepared a more convincing sample in 1824. The difficult separation reflected silicon's strong association with other elements in . Its later electronic importance grew from understanding and controlling the properties of the isolated element.
1811
Impure material obtained
Gay-Lussac and Thénard produced material containing elemental silicon.
1824
Clearer isolation achieved
Berzelius prepared a relatively pure silicon sample and established its identity.
Silicon occurs in silica and in numerous minerals, including feldspars and micas. Quartz, flint, and many rock-forming materials therefore contain silicon bonded to oxygen. These mineral forms differ from the elemental used in electronics; producing those crystals requires chemical separation followed by extensive purification and controlled growth.
Silicon is a , so its electrical behavior can be changed by adding carefully chosen impurities. Boron and phosphorus are examples of used to modify charge-carrier populations. This is different from simply mixing conductive metals: a small compositional change can alter how a silicon device operates.
Each section links its supporting references. Descriptions and diagrams were authored for this atlas. Source checks completed. Source checks dated 2026-09-06.
CITE THIS PAGE
Family labels and the group-3 layout are teaching conventions. A table position does not establish an unknown bulk property. Electronic configurations refer to neutral atoms; ions and material environments require their own account.
Above the teaching threshold, a conducting channel can connect source and drain. Drain bias drives current; the gate controls the channel across an insulating layer.
What this representation means
Original idealized long-channel nMOS cutaway. Geometry, material colors, doping profiles and layer thicknesses are illustrative. Exploding the layers is a viewing aid, not a fabrication process. It omits leakage, short-channel effects and detailed electrostatics.
B: filled green point. Markers identify the selected drain voltage and current; each curve spans the available drain voltages.
View sampled plot values
Current values
Drain voltage (V)
Drain current (mA)
0.000
0.00000
0.100
0.07500
0.200
0.14000
0.300
0.19500
0.400
0.24000
0.500
0.27500
0.600
0.30000
0.700
0.31500
0.800
0.32000
0.900
0.32000
1.000
0.32000
1.100
0.32000
1.200
0.32000
1.300
0.32000
1.400
0.32000
1.500
0.32000
1.600
0.32000
1.700
0.32000
1.800
0.32000
1.900
0.32000
2.000
0.32000
2.100
0.32000
2.200
0.32000
2.300
0.32000
2.400
0.32000
2.500
0.32000
2.600
0.32000
2.700
0.32000
2.800
0.32000
2.900
0.32000
3.000
0.32000
3.100
0.32000
3.200
0.32000
3.300
0.32000
Ideal long-channel nMOS teaching model, Vₜ = 1 V and k = 1 mA/V². No leakage, short-channel, temperature or manufacturing prediction.
TEACHING RELATIONSHIPIᴅ = k[(Vɢ−Vₜ)Vᴅ − Vᴅ²/2] or k(Vɢ−Vₜ)²/2
Drain current0.320 mA
Operating regionsaturation
Threshold1.0 V
The same gate and drain settings determine both the readout and the current–voltage curve. This is an ideal teaching device.
REFERENCE PROPERTIES
Read each reference property together with its units, conditions and the reference information below.
Not yet recorded: electron affinity, second ionization energy, ground-state term symbol, van der waals radius, thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, electrical resistivity, crystal structure, lattice parameter a, space group, abundance in seawater, abundance in the universe, annual production, supply-risk listing, hazard classification, biological role, cas registry number, pubchem cid, wikidata item. These families are declared and awaiting an ingestion run against the source each names; they are listed here rather than shown as empty rows.
Physical
Intended reference: CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics · CRC Press
Phase at 20 °C
solid
293.15 K, 101.325 kPa
Melting point in K
1687 K
at standard pressure unless noted
Boiling point in K
3538 K
101.325 kPa
Density in g/cm³
2.33 g/cm³
solids and liquids at 293 K; gases at 273 K and 101.325 kPa
Atomic and electronic
Intended reference: Pauling electronegativity scale · Widely tabulated; original in The Nature of the Chemical Bond
Electronegativity in Pauling
1.9 Pauling
Pauling scale
First ionization energy in kJ/mol
786.5 kJ/mol
gas-phase neutral atom, ground state
Covalent radius in pm
111 pm
single-bond covalent radius
Common oxidation states
+4
states met in ordinary compounds; not exhaustive
Occurrence and identity
Intended reference: CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics · CRC Press
Abundance in the crust in mg/kg
282000 mg/kg
upper continental crust, mass fraction
Has stable isotopes
Yesderived
Discovery year in CE
1824 CEderived
WHERE IT SITS AMONG ITS NEIGHBORS
Electronegativity across period 3
Si 1.9 Pauling · Silicon
Electronegativity across period 3. Exact values.
Na
0.93
Mg
1.31
Al
1.61
Si
1.9
P
2.19
S
2.58
Cl
3.16
Electronegativity down group 14
Si 1.9 Pauling · Silicon
Electronegativity down group 14. Exact values.
C
2.55
Si
1.9
Ge
2.01
Sn
1.96
Pb
2.33
The trend uses the same reference-property values as the periodic table. Elements with no recorded value are left out of the line rather than drawn at zero.
