A Kinetic Study on the Copper-catalyzed Reaction of Silicon with Methanol into Trimethoxysilane

Article abstract of DOI:10.1246/cl.1991.199

The reaction of methanol with silicon was carried out in a fixed-bed reactor at 463-533 K.In order to determine the kinetics of the reaction per reaction site on the silicon surface, a pressure- (or temperature-) transition method was employed.The reaction order with respect to methanol was 1.0 and 1.4 for the Si-CuCl mixture preheated at 513 and 723 K, respectively, indicating that the rate-determining step is not the diffusion of silicon or copper species to the reaction site, but the chemical process involving methanol.Kinetics also indicate that the nature of the reaction sites changes with the preheating conditions of the mixture.