[ noun ] a white or colorless vitreous insoluble solid (SiO2); various forms occur widely in the earth's crust as quartz or cristobalite or tridymite or lechatelierite <noun.substance>
Silica \Sil"i*ca\, n. [NL., from L. silex, silics, a flint.] (Chem.) Silicon dioxide, SiO?. It constitutes ordinary quartz (also opal and tridymite), and is artifically prepared as a very fine, white, tasteless, inodorous powder.
Glass is manufactured by heating silica (essentially sand) and sodium carbonate.
Cabot also makes noise-damping polymers, plastics ingredients and fumed silica, which is used in making silicone rubber.
Lengthy exposure to silica causes hard nodules to form in lungs until scar tissue replaces healthy tissue, leaving little room to breathe.
Within the last six months they have developed an even lighter silica aerogel that is less dense than air.
Magma that is 65 percent to 75 percent silica has silica-rich molecules which tend to chain together and drastically increase the resistance to flow, or viscosity.
'I was in Dubai earlier this year, sitting in an office discussing the price of silica sand when there was a sandstorm outside,' he said. He is optimistic about growing business, which might soon have to take extra staff.