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SILICON
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
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
Synonyms:
atomic number 14; Si; silicon
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("silicon" is a kind of...):
chemical element; element (any of the more than 100 known substances (of which 92 occur naturally) that cannot be separated into simpler substances and that singly or in combination constitute all matter)
semiconducting material; semiconductor (a substance as germanium or silicon whose electrical conductivity is intermediate between that of a metal and an insulator; its conductivity increases with temperature and in the presence of impurities)
Holonyms ("silicon" is a substance of...):
quartz (a hard glossy mineral consisting of silicon dioxide in crystal form; present in most rocks (especially sandstone and granite); yellow sand is quartz with iron oxide impurities)
clay (a very fine-grained soil that is plastic when moist but hard when fired)
feldspar; felspar (any of a group of hard crystalline minerals that consist of aluminum silicates of potassium or sodium or calcium or barium)
granite (plutonic igneous rock having visibly crystalline texture; generally composed of feldspar and mica and quartz)
sand (a loose material consisting of grains of rock or coral)
silicone; silicone polymer (any of a large class of siloxanes that are unusually stable over a wide range of temperatures; used in lubricants and adhesives and coatings and synthetic rubber and electrical insulation)
Context examples:
One property that distinguishes these materials from traditional semiconductors like silicon is that they are mechanically flexible.
(Materials for the next generation of electronics and photovoltaics, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
These include state-of-the-art perovskite light absorbers, which provide a high photovoltage and electrical current to power the chemical reaction by which carbon dioxide is reduced to carbon monoxide, in comparison to light absorbers made from silicon or dye-sensitised materials.
(‘Artificial leaf’ successfully produces clean gas, University of Cambridge)
They found that silicon nanocrystals with appropriate surface ligands can rapidly transfer energy to surrounding molecules.
(Making higher energy light to fight cancer, National Science Foundation)
Between the aluminum top and the silicon bottom is a very thin layer of silicon dioxide.
(Harvesting Electrical Power from Waste Heat, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
The decision was made after they analyzed data from two instruments, which show elevated amounts of silicon and hydrogen, respectively.
(Curiosity Rover Inspects Unusual Bedrock, NASA)
He added that the team tested other materials such as aluminum foils and Teflon, but after all the tests, they found that silicon was able to produce more charge than the other materials.
(Nanogenerator Creates Electricity from Snowfall, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
The silicon material needs to have a highly ordered wafer structure and is very sensitive to any impurities, such as dust, so has to be made in a cleanroom.
(‘Messy’ production of perovskite material increases solar cell efficiency, University of Cambridge)
As such, packets of charge don’t move nearly as fast as they do in semiconductors like silicon or gallium arsenide, both of which have a highly ordered crystalline structure.
(Certain organic semiconducting materials can transport spin faster than they conduct charge, University of Cambridge)
Silicon is known for being nontoxic, but researchers had not been able to demonstrate that silicon nanocrystals can up-convert photons, leaving this promising cancer treatment tantalizingly out of reach.
(Making higher energy light to fight cancer, National Science Foundation)
This pushes electrons back and forth between the aluminum and the silicon in an asymmetric manner.
(Harvesting Electrical Power from Waste Heat, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
