Organosilicon

Name:
Organosilicon
Detailed information:
An organic compound in which silicon is bonded to carbon (organosilane). Such compounds were first made by Friedel and Crafts in 1863. Silicon was found to have a remarkable chemical similarity to carbon, which it can replace in organic compounds. The silicon-carbon bond is about as strong as the carbon-carbon bond, and compounds containing them are similar in properties to all-carbon compounds. Organosilicon oxides (organosiloxanes or silicones) were discovered by F. S. Kipping in England in 1900; he found that Grignard reagents would react with silicon tetrachloride to form silicon−carbon−bonded polymers of both ring and chain types. These were named silicones because of the similarity of their empirical formula (R₂SiO) to that of ketones (R₂CO).An organosilicon compound (tetramesityldisilene) containing a silicon to silicon double bond has been synthesized. It is a crystalline solid, mp 176C, and has reactive properties similar to olefins. Compounds of this type are called silylenes. See Silicone.