Silicon (Si) is a non-metallic chemical element belonging to the carbon family (group 14 [IVa] of the periodic table). Silicon makes up 27.7 % of the Earth's crust, being the second most abundant element in the crust, second only to oxygen. It is a hard, brittle crystalline substance with a grey-blue metallic lustre, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor.
The name silicon comes from the Latin silex or silicis, meaning 'flint' or 'hard stone'. The first isolation and description of amorphous elemental silicon as an element was carried out by Jons Jakob Berzelius, a Swedish chemist, in 1824. The obtaining of impure silicon was carried out as early as 1811. The isolation of crystalline elemental silicon was not realised until 1854, when it was obtained as a product of electrolysis.
