silicon dioxide

noun, Chemistry

silica.

Examples from the web for silicon dioxide

Until now, that has been done using silicon dioxide-in other words, quartz.
It's called aerogel, and it's an extremely lightweight form of silicon dioxide.
The oxygen stolen from the metals turns the silicon into silicon dioxide, or quartz.
For decades, the gate dielectric has been made of an insulating material called silicon dioxide.
However, as transistors have shrunk, the layer of silicon dioxide has needed to become thinner.
Currently, silicon transistors use a layer of silicon dioxide as the gate dielectric.
Usually, silicon dioxide is employed as the gate material, but the researchers used silicon monoxide.
It's coated with silicon dioxide, which will act as the insulator in the transistors.
They placed a sheet of the stuff over a tiny circular hole drilled into a slab of silicon dioxide.
The new approach begins with depositing patterned metal onto a substrate made of silicon dioxide.

silicon dioxide in Medicine

silicon dioxide n.
Silica.

silicon dioxide in Science

silicon dioxide
See silica.

Encyclopedia Article for silicon dioxide

silica

compound of the two most abundant elements in the Earth's crust, silicon and oxygen, SiO2. The mass of the Earth's crust is 59 percent silica, the main constituent of more than 95 percent of the known rocks. Silica has three main crystalline varieties: quartz (by far the most abundant), tridymite, and cristobalite. Other varieties include coesite, keatite, and lechatelierite. Silica sand is used in buildings and roads in the form of portland cement, concrete, and mortar, as well as sandstone. Silica also is used in grinding and polishing glass and stone; in foundry molds; in the manufacture of glass, ceramics, silicon carbide, ferrosilicon, and silicones; as a refractory material; and as gemstones.

Learn more about silica with a free trial on Britannica.com