Discovery of silicon & how is it extracted commercially

[EmuWizard]

what lead to the discovery of silicon

&

how is it extracted commercially & how can it be done at home aswell?

 

[Borek]

Our usual rates for doing other people homework start at $100/hour. But once you will show what you did by yourself and where you get stuck, we will push you in the right direction for free.

 

[EmuWizard]

sry for bieng so blunt & so naive :p

i got this much so far. It was only identified in 1787 by a scientist Lavoisier. However, Berzelius was the first person to isolate silicon in 1823, and thus he is credited with its discovery (web1.caryacademy.org). the thing is i can't find out why he was doing what he was doing, i can't find anyinfo on that.

& i found my info about how it is extracted commercially, apparently they take out the impurities by heeting it with coke in a blast furnace. but i need a small scale experiment too which i can't find. i can only think of mixing it with sumthing to react with the oxygen & leave wat i need behind.

 

[Borek]

I am not sure if I understand the first question, as the only answer I am aware of is "curiosity". What I mean is that chemists were trying at the time to decompose every substance into what they called "simple substances" - what we today know as elements (note: don't treat nomenclature I am using too seriously, as I am translating from Polish). Berzelius was the first one to succeed in preparing pure silicon, but I don't remember reading about any special events that lead to that discovery.

Small scale & home experiment looks unlikely to me, you need high temperatures for SiO₂ reduction. Does it have to be production of Si, or something else where Si compounds are involved will do as well?

 

[EmuWizard]

I am not sure if I understand the first question, as the only answer I am aware of is "curiosity". What I mean is that chemists were trying at the time to decompose every substance into what they called "simple substances" - what we today know as elements (note: don't treat nomenclature I am using too seriously, as I am translating from Polish). Berzelius was the first one to succeed in preparing pure silicon, but I don't remember reading about any special events that lead to that discovery.

Small scale & home experiment looks unlikely to me, you need high temperatures for SiO₂ reduction. Does it have to be production of Si, or something else where Si compounds are involved will do as well?

lol that's good enough answer for me aswell.

& yes it has to specificcally be Silicon, as I am doing a report on it.