Silicones and Other Heat-resisting Polymers

The possibility of the existence of organosilicone compounds was first predicted by Dumas in 1840, and in 1857 Buff and Wohler found the substance now known to be trichlorosilane by passing hydrochloric acid gas over a heated mixture of silicone and carbon. In 1863 Friedel and Crafts prepared tetraethylsilane by reacting zinc diethyl with silicon tetrachloride. 

In 1872 Ladenburg produced the first silicone polymer, a very viscous oil, by reacting diethoxydiethylsilane with water in the presence of traces of acid. 

The basis of modem silicone chemistry was, however, laid by Professor F. S. Kipping at the University College, Nottingham, between the years 1899 and 1944. During this period Kipping published a series of 51 main papers and some 

Nevertheless Kipping made a number of contributions of value to the modem silicone industry. In 1904 he introduced the use of Grignard reagents for the preparation of chlorosilanes and later discovered the principle of the inter-molecular condensation of the silane diols, the basis of current polymerisation practice. The term silicone was also given by Kipping to the hydrolysis products of the disubstituted silicon chlorides because he at one time considered them as being analogous to the ketones. 

There are at present about a dozen manufacturers outside the Communist bloc. Amongst major producers, in addition to those already mentioned, are Bayer, Rhone-Poulenc, Wacker-Chemie, Toshiba, Toray and Shinetsu. 

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Silicones and Other Heat-resisting Polymers 29.2.1 The Grignard Method... 

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