Silicon Hydrides and Their Derivatives

Silicon hydrides and their derivatives Direct synthesis of organohalogenosilanes... 

B. J. Aylett, Silicon Hydrides and their Derivatives", Adv. Inorg. Radiochem. 1968, II, 249. 

Aylett, B. J., Silicon hydrides and their derivatives, Advan. Inorg. Chem. Radiochem. 2i<-9-507 (I968). 

Silicon is the most plentiful electropositive element on the earth s crust, being three times as abundant as aluminum and six times as abundant as iron. Yet the only compounds of silicon which have been important to human history are those natural forms of silica and the silicate minerals which are used in the building arts and in ceramic technology. Only within the past 90 years have hydrides and organic derivatives of silicon been synthesized, and the chlorides 30 years before up to a few years ago it could be said that all these substances were still relatively unknown products of the laboratory, unimportant save for their scientific interest. The chemistry and technology of silicon continued to be dominated entirely by consideration of the inorganic silicates. 

Gorbunfov, A.I., Belyi, A.P., and Filippov, G.G., Reactions of silicon and germanium with halogens, their hydrides, and organic halogen derivatives Russ. Chem. Rev. 1974, 43, 291. 

Gorbunov, A. I., Belyi, A. P., Fillippov, G. G., Reactions of Silicon and Germanium with Halogens, Their Hydrides and Organic Halogen Derivatives, Usp. Khim. 43 [1974] 683/706 Russ. Chem. Rev. 43 [1974] 291/304. 

The catalytic addition of organic and inorganic silicon hydrides to alkenes, ary-lalkenes, and cycloalkenes as well as their derivatives with functional groups leads to their respective alkyl derivatives of silicon and occurs according to the anti-Markovnikov rule. However, under some conditions (e.g., in the presence of Pd catalysts), this product is accompanied by a-adduct (i.e., the one containing an internal silyl group). Moreover, dehydrogenative silylation of alkenes with hydrosilanes, which proceeds particularly in the presence of iron- and cobalt-triad complexes as related to hydrosilylation (and very often its side reaction), is discussed. 

Carbon is, of course, unique in the number of hydrides it forms, but the elements in the proximity of carbon in the Periodic Table have a similar, if more restricted, propensity to form hydrides. Silicon, germanium, boron and phosphorus are obvious examples. For hydrides of these elements, and especially for their organic derivatives, the methods of substitutive nomenclature can be applied to obtain suitable names. 

---