Uses
Silicon is a very important element. In its natural form of sand or dirt, it is used to make bricks and concrete. It is useful in making pottery, and it's an important ingredient in steel. In the form of silica, silicon is used to make glass. Glass is inexpensive, it has excellent physical properties, and it can be shaped many different ways.
The use of silicon most important to our modern life is in the form of electronics. Silicon can be doped with boron, gallium, phosphorus, or arsenic to produce silicon suitable for use in transistors, solar cells, rectifiers, and other solid-state devices. Silicon is inside almost everything electronic: telephones, radios, caculators, and computers. Silicon is used to make the microchips and integrated circuits that power our modern world.
