Silicon arsenic-oxygen bonds

Six elements are metalloids B, Si, Ge, As, Sb, and Te. Of these, silicon is by far the most abundant, making up over 27% of the Earth s crust, more than any other element except oxygen, hi fact, S1O2 and silicate minerals account for 80% of the atoms near the Earth s surface. Despite its great abundance, silicon was not discovered until 1824, probably because the strong bonds it forms with oxygen makes silicon difficult to isolate. Two much rarer metalloids, antimony (known to the ancients) and arsenic (discovered ca. 1250 ad) were isolated and identified long before silicon. 

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