Silicon °C respectively are the second-highest among all the metalloids and nonmetals, being only surpassed by boron. Silicon is the eighth most common element in the universe by mass, but very rarely occurs as the pure element in the Earth's crust. It is most widely distributed in dusts, sands, planetoids, and planets as various forms of silicon dioxide (silica) or silicates. More than 90% of the Earth's crust is composed of silicate minerals, making silicon the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust (about 28% by mass) after oxygen. Most silicon is used commercially without being separated, and often with
Post-transition metal which verge on the nonmetals. The peculiar metals occur towards the ends of the rows of the periodic table and include 'approximately:' gallium, indium, and thallium; carbon, silicon '(both of which have some metallic properties, though we have previously treated them as nonmetals),' germanium and tin; arsenic, antimony, and bismuth; and selenium '(which is partly metallic)' and tellurium. The ordinary metals have centro-symmetrical crystalline structures whereas the peculiar metals have structures involving directional bonding. More recently, Joshua observed that the peculiar metals have mixed metallic-covalent bonding. Farrell and Van Sicien use the term "poor metal", for simplicity, 'to denote one