Silicon metal introduction
Silicon is neither metal nor
non-metal; it's a metalloid, an element that falls somewhere
between the two. The category of metalloid is something of a gray
area, with no firm definition of what fits the bill, but
metalloids generally have properties of both metals and
non-metals. They look metallic, but conduct electricity only
intermediately well. Silicon is a semiconductor, meaning that it
does conduct electricity. Unlike a typical metal, however,
silicon gets better at conducting electricity as the temperature
increases (metals get worse at conductivity at higher
temperatures).
Silicon was first isolated in 1824 by Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob
Berzelius, who also discovered cerium, selenium and thorium,
according to the Chemical Heritage Foundation. Berzelius heated
silica with potassium to purify silicon, according to the Thomas
Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, but today the refinement
process heats carbon with silica in the form of sand to isolate
the element.