Silicone

[kopend]

whats the difference between silicone and silicon ?

[Buenchico]

Silicon is a non-metallic element.

Silicone (in modern use) is "any of a large group of synthetic organosilicon polymers (siloxanes) based on chains or networks of alternating silicon and oxygen atoms, many of these being good electrical insulators with high durability, and finding uses as liquids, greases, rubbers (notably in cosmetic surgery), or resins".

Source: Oxford English Dictionary.

(Note: a personal subscription to the full content of the OED website costs over £200 per year but you can get free access by simply entering your public library card number, omitting any spaces, here: http://www.oed.com/loginpage - if you're interested in word definitions it's well worth bookmarking that page!)

[bhg481]

That's a good link to the OED Buenchico, thanks.

[kopend]

thank you

and please excuse my ignorance but is there a difference or not then ??

[Buenchico]

>>>is there a difference or not then

Silicon is an element which is most usually obtained by extracting it from sand (which is made up largely of silicon dioxide).

Lots of different compounds can be classed as silicones. Since they're not single elements, they include both carbon and hydrogen within their structure, as well as silicon.

So the chemical symbol for silicon is simply S, whereas the chemical structure of a typical silicone (polydimethylsiloxane) is CH3[Si(CH3)2O]nSi(CH3).

[kopend]

thank you

[Peter Pedant]

silicon is an element and only contains Silicon
and has the same crystal structure as diamond

Silicone has chains of Si-O-Si - and then bits off the side
so is not really more than 50% Silicon. Completely different properties
The chains are very stable and unreactive which makes silicone have the inert properties it is famous for

The chemical Letter for Silicon is Si

I think BC who is nearly always always right must have been twerking when he wrote that S was the symbol for Silicon. S is the chemical symbol for sulphur ( which has an interesting crystal structure ..... )

[Buenchico]

'Twas but a simple typo, PP. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)
;-)