What is silicon used for?
As the second most abundant element in the earth’s crust, silicon is vital to the construction industry as a principal constituent of natural stone, glass, concrete and cement. Silicon’s greatest impact on the modern world’s economy and lifestyle has resulted from silicon wafers used as substrates in the manufacture of discrete electronic devices such as power transistors, and in the development of integrated circuits such as computer chips. Alloys The largest application of pure silicon (metallurgical grade silicon), representing about 55% of the world consumption, is in the manufacture of aluminium-silicon alloys to produce cast parts, mainly for the automotive industry. Silicon is an important constituent of electrical steel, modifying its resistivity and ferromagnetic properties. Silicon is added to molten cast iron as ferrosilicon or silicocalcium alloys to improve its performance in casting thin sections, and to prevent the formation of cementite at the surface. In electronic app
