Silicon-, Germanium-, Tin-, and Lead-Containing Polymers

Group IVA starts with carbon, which is a nonmetal, followed by silicon and germanium, which are metalloids (semimetals), and tin and lead, which are metals. All of the group IVA elements have the ability to catenate however, as you move down the group, this ability decreases. Some of the more important inorganic polymers are polysilanes, in which there are repeat Si-Si units in the polymer backbone. However, the bond energy of Si Si bonds is 222 kJ/mol, while the 

Macromolecules Containing Metal and Metal-like Elements, 

Volume 1 A Half-Century of Metal and Metalloid-Containing Polymers, By Alaa S. Abd-El-Aziz, Charles E. Carraher, Jr., Charles U. Pittman, Jr., John E. Sheats, and Martel Zeldin ISBN 0-471-45832-5 Cop5night 2003 John Wiley Sons, Inc. 

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A general introduction of silicon-, germanium-, tin- and lead-containing polymers is presented in Chapter 6 of Volume 1 in this series. A more extensive treatment of organogermanirrm, organotin, and organolead polymers is presented in this volume in Chapter 9, Chapter 10, and Chapter 11, respectively. The remainder of this volume (Chapters 2-8) focuses attention of special aspects and new developments in silicon-containing polymers. 

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