Silicones

Silicones (singular: silicone) is the name for a group of synthetic polymers that feature net-like and/or molecular chain-link connections made up of silicon and oxygen atoms. Hydrocarbon rests (usually methyl groups) saturate the remaining free valence electrons of the silicon. The name was introduced at the beginning of the 20th century by Frederick Stanley Kipping (1863-1949), an English chemist. Scientific literature frequently refers to silicones as poly(organo)siloxanes, or simply siloxanes.
Due to their typical inorganic basic structure on the one hand and their organic rests on the other, silicones hold an interim position between inorganic and organic compounds, in particular between silicates and organic polymers. In a sense, they are hybrids that possess a unique spectrum of properties that no other plastic achieves.

Silicone is not to be confused with the silicone component silicon. The similar spelling often leads to faulty translations.