Silicon

A nonmetalic element analogous to carbon It always occurs combined in nature and is artificially obtained in the free state usually as a dark brown amorphous powder or as a dark crystalline substance with a meetallic luster Its oxide is silica or common quartz and in this form or as silicates it is next to oxygen the most abundant element of the earths crust Silicon is characteristically the element of the mineral kingdom as carbon is of the organic world Symbol Si Atomic weight 28 Called also silicium