Organosilicon synthesis chlorosilanes

As in other preparative methods for organosilicon compounds, the direct synthesis produces a mixture of methylchlorosilanes rather than the single compound shown in equation 3. Besides dimethyl-dichlorosilane, the mixture usually contains silicon tetrachloride, tri-chlorosilane, methyltrichlorosilane, methyldichlorosilane, trimethyl-chlorosilane, and even silicon tetramethyl. Under proper conditions, dimethyldichlorosilane is the principal product. Of the other compounds, methyltrichlorosilane usually is next in abundance this substance finds use in the cross-linked methyl silicone resins, or it can be methylated further by the Grignard method to increase the yield of dimethyldichlorosilane. There is no way of recycling it in the direct process, and so supplemental operations are required for the conversion. The interconversion of this and the other minor products of the direct synthesis, involving the exchange of methyl and chlorine groups as desired, has been a special study in itself.10... 

The electrochemical coupling of chlorosilanes with organic halides appears to be an attractive pathway for the synthesis of organosilicon compounds. Regarding industrial applications, the use of our specially developed hydrogen anode [1] is of particular interest, as it produces HCl instead of metal salts. Thus, starting from a work of Bordeau et al. on the trimethylsilylation of o-dichlorobenzene [2], we tested the applicability of electrochemical reduction for the synthesis of phenylated and /-butyl-substituted silanes. 

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