| (L. silex: silicis, flint) In 1800, Davy thought silica to be a compound and not an element; but in 1811, Gay Lussac and Thenard probably prepared impure amorphous silicon by heating potassium with silicon tetrafluoride.
In 1824 Berzelius, generally credited with the discovery, prepared amorphous silicon by the same general method and purified the product by removing the fluosilicates by repeated washings. Deville in 1854 first prepared crystalline silicon, the second allotropic form of the element.
A Periodic Table of the Elements at Los Alamos National Laboratory |
