Organosilicon catenates

The formation of the Si-Si bond occupies a special position in organosilicon chemistry. Silicon is one of the few elements, which can form stable catenated compounds. Besides high-molecular weight polysilanes, oligomeric polysilanes are a very important class of compounds that are related to silylenes,... 

Well over 100000 organosilicon compounds have been synthesized. Of these, during the past few decades, silicone oils, elastomers and resins have become major industrial products. Many organosilicon compounds have considerable thermal stability and chemical inertness e.g. SiPha can be distilled in air at its bp 428°, as can PhaSiCl (bp 378°) and Ph2SiCl2 (bp 305°). These, and innumerable similar compounds, reflect the considerable strength of the Si-C bond which is, indeed, comparable with that of the C-C bond (p. 338). A further illustration is the compound SiC which closely resembles diamond in its properties (p. 334). Catenation and the formation of multiple bonds are further similarities with carbon chemistry, though these features are less prominent in organosilicon chemistry and much of the work in these areas is of recent... 

Metal-assisted dehalogenation reaction, analogous to the well-known Wurtz reaction has been very effectively employed for the preparation of polysilanes which contain catenated organosilicon units. Thus, the reaction of a variety of diorganodichlorosilanes with finely divided sodium in a... 

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