What is Silica?

More on them later. This is sand. This is sand. This is also sand. This could be sand. Aside from white tropical sand created by fish eating coral or volcanic sand from worn down lava, sand is quartz. Take this quartz crystal. Crush it up. What comes out is what's in these piles. Zoom in to one of the grains of sand in one of these piles. And you would see oxygen atoms sticking themselves to silicon atoms in a pyramid shape.

Each pyramid tangled up with its neighbor. The tangle becomes a crystal called silica. Silica being the main ingredient. Concrete is quite literally the foundation of our world. Concrete is not overly picky about the quality of its silica. A little bit of iron or magnesium tangled up in the crystal. Mix it together with lime. Add some water poured in a mold. Let it cure and you have concrete. But if you find yourself with pure silica, nothing else along for the ride.

You, my friend, have found something exceptionally rare. Expect a knock on your door because humans discovered long ago. If you apply enough heat to silica, it'll turn into glass. The more pure the silica, the clearer the glass. Far more recently, we discovered that if you want pure silicon, yes, that's silicon. If you want silicon, pure silica is the first thing you must find.