Silicone
class of liquid or rubbery, heat-resistant, stable substance consisting of polymers or oligomers of siloxane with other atoms
A silicone or polysiloxane is a polymer composed of repeating units of siloxane (−O−SiR2−O−SiR2−, where "R" stands for an organic group). They are typically colorless oils or rubber-like substances. Silicones are used in sealants, adhesives, lubricants, medicine, cooking utensils, thermal insulation, and electrical insulation. Some common forms include silicone oil, grease, rubber, resin, and caulk. From the chemical perspective, silicones are unusual because they feature inorganic backbones, composed only of Si and O, but they have properties of organic polymers. They represent one of the main applications of organosilicon chemistry.
Silicone is often confused with one of its constituent elements, silicon. Silicon, a hard gray solid, is used to make integrated circuits ("electronic chips") and solar cells. In contrast, silicones, which tend to be electrical insulators, are often colorless oils or rubbery resin.
History
F. S. Kipping coined the word silicone in 1901 to describe the formula of polydiphenylsiloxane, Ph2SiO (Ph = phenyl, C6H5), by analogy with the formula of the ketone benzophenone, Ph2CO (his term was originally silicoketone).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Silicone” is class of liquid or rubbery, heat-resistant, stable substance consisting of polymers or oligomers of siloxane with other atoms. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Silicone, class and liquid, not as a finished interpretation.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q146439. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1901.
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This entry incorporates text from “Silicone” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.