Silicones are industrially produced compounds derived from the element silicon. Although silicon is the second most common element in the earth's crust, its high affinity for oxygen means that it is only found in compounds with oxygen, namely as silicates and silicon dioxide that make up minerals and sand. Elemental silicon was discovered at a relatively late stage because of the very high silicon-oxygen bond energies.

The principal steps in the development of silicone chemistry were:

• The discovery of silicon by Berzelius in 1824 from the reduction of silicon tetrafluoride with potassium.
  
  
• Kipping, generally considered the father of silicone chemistry, laid the foundation of the industry with, among other things, the preparation of various silanes by means of Grignard reactions and the hydrolysis of chlorosilanes to yield "large molecules".

Click here to view our interactive timeline, which presents an overview of main developments in the history of silicones.