Preparation Aryl-substituted polysilanes

The second approach to linear polysilanes is based on the modification of polysilanes prepared by the reductive coupling method. The severe conditions of this reaction allow only alkyl or aryl substituents at the silicon atom in the starting dichlorosilane. Therefore only alkyl or aryl substituted polysilanes are known. We have successfully prepared new polysilanes with pendant alkoxy and amino side groups. This approach allows fine tuning of the properties of... 

As the reaction conditions for the preparation of the masked disilenes are as harsh as those of the Wurtz-type reductive coupling reaction, the introduction of functional groups is not trivial. An elegant way to introduce at least some diversity is via the transformation of amine-functionalized polysilanes [39] to the chloro substituted derivatives. These can be converted to alkyl and aryl groups using the corresponding Grignard compounds (Fig. 9) [35]. 

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