Frank Lev looks at silicon’s history and future prospects in battery technology.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, silicon (Si) is a non-metallic chemical element in the carbon family (group 14 [IVa] of the periodic table). Silicon makes up 27.7% of the earth’s crust – the second most abundant element after oxygen.
Silicon means ‘flint’ in Latin. Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius discovered elemental silicon in 1824. Scottish chemist Thomas Thomson gave silicon its present name in 1817.
The Ancient Egyptians and silicon
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