The Significance of Black Silicone

Since the 1930s the world has been fascinated by silicone. It is a product created from the naturally occurring chemical element known as silicon.

Silicon in its natural form is a bluish tinged rock-like material. It is the most abundant natural element after oxygen.

This is fortunate because it is a staggeringly beneficial and vital material. Forty percent of annual silicon supplies are converted into silicone, though many industries need raw silicon stocks to continue to operate.

The modern world of computers would not exist without silicon (consider Silicon Valley in California – it earned its nickname for its heavy use of microchips which require silicon to be created). Many industries would cease to exist without a steady supply of silicon or silicone products.

Human beings have taken silicon and silicone to great lengths since it was first noted and identified as an element in the 1700’s.

Today, silicon and silicone are being scrutinized and examined for any further capabilities and one fairly recent discovery is quite remarkable. Scientists doing studies on “reactive ion etching” inadvertently modified the surface of silicon. What they discovered about this modification is beginning to appear as one of the greatest discoveries within a century.

They created what they have called Black Silicone and it can be from 100 to 500 times more sensitive to sunlight than conventional silicon. This has mammoth implications because most of the world’s solar energy systems use photovoltaic cells. These cells, when outfitted with Black Silicone, would be able to produce enormous amount of energy.

The real beauty of this discovery is that the Black Silicone would operate in the same silicon-based processes currently at work but with hyper efficiency and effectiveness.

Some scientists also note that alternative technologies, including infra-red imaging and night vision equipment would also work far more productively if they were outfitted with Black Silicone materials instead of the current silicon-based items as well.

Though the technologies around Black Silicone have yet to be developed, the possibilities seem almost as unlimited as the many uses for silicone itself. Consider that any technology which utilizes light sensitivity could be boosted from one to five hundred percent in its effectiveness simply by introducing Black Silicone into the manufacturing process. This means that less radiation or expense would play a role in CT-Scans, X-rays, satellites, surveillance equipment and even in consumer and “prosumer” digital cameras.

Additionally, most modern equipment that is already utilizing silicon-based materials could easily and inexpensively be retro-fitted with Black Silicone materials as well. Because no base line changes to technologies would be required, an enormous amount of energy consumption could be eliminated with little expense, effort or “down time”.

A final interesting fact about Black Silicone is that it isn’t black at all.

The process that creates it is a bit complicated to explain, but involves a silicon chip being hit with pulses of femtosecond laser light and simultaneously exposed to sulfur hexafluoride gas. This leaves behind a chip that appears to have turned black, but which upon microscopic inspection has actually grown millions of little cones across its surface. This roughening of the silicon surface soaks up all of the visible light that strikes it, giving it a colourless surface from which Black Silicone takes its name. It is this very quality however that gives it low reflectivity and its super-high absorption rate.

Obviously, Black Silicone is something we should all be watching in the near future.