Nope.

Silicon is a hard, brittle grey metallic element. Silica, silicones, etc are all based on silicon.

React it with oxygen - i.e. burn it - and you get silicon dioxide, also known as silica, which is very common on beaches, sandpaper, adhesives, flooring materials, and even in some foodstuffs in the form of fumed silica - Cabosil if you will - to help them flow freely. It is known in the Republic of California to cause cancer.. when breathed excessively in dust form.

Form polymers from siloxane groups - SiO, silicon and oxygen - and organic compounds and you get polysiloxanes, also known by their colloquial name, silicone rubber or just "silicone".

Natural rubber is a compound made primarily of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. It does not behave like any of those three elements any more than salt in your mouth behaves like a mixture of sodium metal and chlorine gas. Thank goodness.

Silicone polymers have specific properties that make it an ideal choice for glow fuel tubing - high temperature resistance, decent mechanical properties (not great but decent enough), low temperature flexibilty in particular, and is chemically very resistant to methanol, nitromethane, and model engine lubricants. Therefore, it is the best choice of the commonly available tubing materials.

The other materials may work to a fashion, but they give up something in exchange for whatever compelling reason you choose to use them over silicone tubing. For example, latex tubing is soft and squishy and makes good pinch-off line, or pressure bladders, or high starts, bungee launchers and tourniquets. But, it degrades much more quickly in the presence of glow fuel than silicones do, and therefore if you use it you use it for a specific reason - to lever a property of the latex that silicone does not possess - and then you have to put up with the caveats in the process, like replacing it more frequently.

Same deal as latex balloon tanks - light, cheap, convenient, work great; but they degrade and require periodic replacement. Due to the lack of perfect materials, you usually pay for one property with another.

In the end it boils down to this - unless you have a specific reason to use other than silicone tubing for glow engines, don't bother. Cost is not a valid reason, it's cheap.

MJD