Silicon, carbon, germanium, tin and lead comprise the Group IVA elements of the periodic system. Silicon and carbon form silicon carbide which, although most widely known as an abrasive and heating element, is also a semiconductor. Germanium and silicon are isomorphous and thus are mutually soluble in all proportions. Molten tin and lead are immiscible with molten silicon. Molten silicon dissolves most materials and no container material has been found that is not noticeably dissolved.
Oxygen forms strong bonds with silicon.
Here's a link to a chemical fact sheet for silicon. This is part of a site at University of New Mexico which has a summary of Integrated Circuit fabrication in linked pages, including one on wafer manufacture . A lot of the essentials I've been hunting for are well presented in these pages. There'a VLSI tutorial from a Swiss source which covers some of the same territory, and details the Czochralski Process for growing silicon crystals, and a commercial site describes the process nicely. The evolution of chips is a diverting part of this subject, and is covered in a number of places.