Binary compounds of silicon

[1] Technically the term silicide is reserved for any compounds containing silicon bonded to a more electropositive element.

Covalent silicides and silicon compounds occur with hydrogen and the elements in groups 10 to 17.

These intermetallics are in general resistant to hydrolysis, brittle, and melt at a lower temperature than the corresponding carbides or borides.

[2] Li4.4Si is prepared from silicon and lithium metal in high-energy Ball mill process.

Group 1 silicides are in general high melting, metallic grey, with moderate to poor electrical conductance and prepared by heating the elements.

The transition metals form a wide range of silicon intermetallics with at least one binary crystalline phase.

Gold forms a eutectic at 363 °C with 2.3% silicon by weight (18% atom percent) without mutual solubility in the solid state.

[13] Silver forms another eutectic at 835 °C with 11% silicon by weight, again with negligible mutual solid state solubility.

[14] or grown on a silicon surface[15][16][17] MnSi1.73 was investigated as thermoelectric material[18] and as an optoelectronic thin film.

[21][22] They are used as thin films or as nanoparticles, obtained by means of epitaxial growth on a silicon substrate.

[23][24] In group 13 boron (a metalloid) forms several binary crystalline silicon boride compounds: SiB3, SiB6, SiBn.

[79] Gallium, also a post-transition metal, forms a eutectic at 29 °C with 99.99% Ga without mutual solid-state solubility;[80] indium[81] and thallium[82] behave similarly.

Silicon carbide (SiC) is widely used as a ceramic or example in car brakes and bulletproof vests.

Germanium silicide forms a solid solution and is again a commercially used semiconductor material.

[85] Silicon nitride (Si3N4) is a ceramic with many commercial high-temperature applications such as engine parts.

[88] A reported silicon phosphide is Si12P5 (no practical applications),[89][90] formed by annealing an amorphous Si-P alloy.

[91] The antimony–silicon system comprises a single eutectic close to the melting point of Sb.

[93] In group 16 silicon dioxide is a very common compound that widely occurs as sand or quartz.