Silicon Flexible
What characteristics of Silicon's internal structure make it flexible (for use if oven trays?)?
I'm in desperate need with my AS-level Physics Coursework please, been searching all over the web but can't find anything relevant, any help would be appreciated, thanks!
Not easy. I doubt very much that an oven tray would be composed entirely of silicon. Anyway, from a chemical viewpoint, silicon is oxidized to form silicon dioxide
Si + O2 = SiO2
which forms a 3D framework structure composed of silicate tetrahedra, where each silicon atom is surrounded by 4 oxygen atoms, which are themselves shared with other silicon atoms and so on. So the structure of SiO2 is very much like carbon in a diamond.
The natural analogue of SiO2 is quartz, probably the most commonly occurring mineral at the earth surface.
If you can twist this chemical viewpoint into something a bit more physics orientated then you should be on the right track.