Silicon dioxide is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula SiO2. Silicon atoms and oxygen atoms are arranged in a long-range orderly manner to form crystalline silicon dioxide, and short-range orderly or long-range disordered arrangements form amorphous silicon dioxide.
In silicon dioxide crystals, silicon atoms are located at the center of a regular tetrahedron, and four oxygen atoms are located at the four vertices of the regular tetrahedron. Many such tetrahedrons are connected by oxygen atoms at the vertices. Each oxygen atom is shared by two tetrahedrons, that is, each oxygen atom is combined with two silicon atoms.
The simplest formula of silicon dioxide is SiO2, but it does not represent a simple molecule (it only represents the ratio of the number of silicon and oxygen atoms in the silicon dioxide crystal).
Pure natural silicon dioxide crystals are a hard, brittle, insoluble, colorless and transparent solid, often used to manufacture optical instruments, etc.












