Silicon kitchen interior material

[Erina]

I just found out that Silicon is a kind of metal, which apparently has nothing to do with the periodic table, and everything to do with it not ending in a vowel.

I was wondering, does Silicon have useful properties for use in kitchen interior ?

[sethoflagos]

Metalloid rather than a metal per se.

It's got a very high melting point so it won't object too much to having a hot pan placed on it. Pretty tough too. 

 

[studiot]

Are you sure you don't mean slilcone, not silicon ?

 

https://www.primasil.com/explore-silicone/

[Erina]

Without the "e".

As Silicon can be CNC drilled, it led me to wonder of it's interior applications in a water environment, with extremities of heat.

[studiot]

39 minutes ago, Erina said:

Without the "e".

As Silicon can be CNC drilled, it led me to wonder of it's interior applications in a water environment, with extremities of heat.

Well you learn something every day.  +1

I have never come across this material. Have you any links ?

[TheVat]

I think of silicon as mostly used in silicates, which is the natural state of most silicon as it likes to form oxides.   Purification sounds expensive if one is going for oven or sink surfaces (but worth doing to make computer chips).  Seems like an alloy with aluminum or iron would be more practical, maybe?  Pure silicon would quickly form an oxide surface, so if you didn't want that you'd need some sort of sealant treatment.

[Erina]

Silicon : 2:47

Edited October 31, 2022 by Erina

[MigL]

Hi-purity Silicon is generally found in integrated circuit chips.
Silicon dioxide is also found in IC chip insulating layers, but a low purity version is found on the beach, as sand.
It is also found in larger crystalline structures, known as quartz, and is often used in just such extreme heat applications, such as electrical stove tops.
Is that 'kitchen' enough ?

[studiot]

Interesting bit of intricate modern machining of hard workpieces made from hard substances such as silicon nitride and boron nitride as well as more ordinary metals.

But I didn't see any kitchen worktops made of silicon.

Do you actually mean resin bonded artificial stone which can contain up to 95%  silica aka quartz ?

[John Cuthber]

Silicon is interesting, but brittle.
I'm not sure it would be practical in the kitchen.

[MigL]

Ceramic matrix composites are an active area of materials research.
I have solid top stoves in the house, so the SiO₂ containing glass tops came to mind.

"A glass-ceramic stove uses radiant heating coils or infrared halogen lamps as the heating elements. The surface of the glass-ceramic cooktop above the burner heats up, but the adjacent surface remains cool because of the low heat conduction coefficient of the material.
An induction stove heats a metal pot's bottom directly through electromagnetic induction."

From      Glass-ceramic - Wikipedia

[studiot]

46 minutes ago, John Cuthber said:

Silicon is interesting, but brittle.
I'm not sure it would be practical in the kitchen.

Quote

Springer.com

 

 

 

 

 

Essentially, silicon is reactive to oxygen at room temperature such that most silicon exists in the form of silicon dioxide like quartz sand in nature. In this regard, oxidation of silicon occurs immediately to form amorphous silicon dioxide film by exposing a silicon surface to oxygen in atmospheric environment.

Agreed. It also oxidises readily.

[Erina]

I wasn't sure what the video meant by Silicon, it sounds like it's bonded with something else.

[sethoflagos]

35 minutes ago, Erina said:

I wasn't sure what the video meant by Silicon, it sounds like it's bonded with something else.

Looks very much like the parts are cut from a fair sized slab of 6mm thick elemental silicon.

Thank you for bringing this to our notice. And sharing an imaginative application that certainly sparked my interest!

 

[John Cuthber]

8 hours ago, studiot said:

It also oxidises readily.

Only superficially (Though it will burn if you get it hot enough.

13 hours ago, Erina said:

I just found out that Silicon is a kind of metal, which apparently has nothing to do with the periodic table, and everything to do with it not ending in a vowel.

The rules about the ends of names aren't reliable.
Most metals (apart from the ancient ones like iron and copper) have names ending "ium".

But helium isn't a metal.

The "inert" gases have names ending "on" (except helium) but silicon isn't an inert gas and nor is boron.