Silicon—oxygen bonds hydrogen halides

Some reactions of trimethylchlorosilane are summarized in Fig. 4.4. Many of these involve nucleophilic attack at silicon in which chlorine is substituted by another group. Alkoxysilanes are obtained using metal alkoxides or alcohols in the presence of pyridine. If the latter reaction is carried out in a non-polar solvent such as light petroleum, pyridinium hydrochloride is precipitated and may be filtered off, leaving the alkoxysilane in solution. Hydrogen chloride cleaves carbon-oxygen bonds in alkoxysilanes (as it does in ethers also) to form an alkyl halide and a siloxane ... 

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