Organosilicon - Organosilanes

Organosilanes

Carbon–silicon bonds compared to carbon–carbon bonds are longer (186 pm vs. 154 pm) and weaker with bond dissociation energy 451 kJ/mol vs. 607 kJ/mol. The C–Si bond is somewhat polarised towards carbon due to carbons greater electronegativity (C 2.55 vs Si 1.90). One manifestation of bond polarization in organosilanes is found in the Sakurai reaction. In oxidative couplings silicon is represented by the Hiyama coupling. Certain alkyl silanes can be oxidized to an alcohol in the Fleming–Tamao oxidation.

Certain allyl silanes can be prepared from allylic ester such as 1 and monosilylcopper compounds such as 2 in.

In this reaction type silicon polarity is reversed in a chemical bond with zinc and a formal allylic substitution on the benzoyloxy group takes place.

The chemistry of silanes such as tetramethylsilane is comparable to that of alkanes in many aspects such as thermal stability. The β-silicon effect describes the stabilizing effect of a β-silicon atom on a carbocation with many implications for reactivity.