Silanes

Silanes are silicon-hydrogen compounds. Carbon-hydrogen compounds form the backbone of the living world with seemingly endless chains of hydrocarbons. With the same valence configuration, and thus the same chemical versatility, silicon could conceivably play a role of similar organic importance. But silicon does not play an integral role in our day to day biology. One principal reasons underlies this.

Like hydrocarbons, silanes progressively grow in size as additional silicon atoms are added. But there is a very quick end to this trend. The largest silane has a maximum of six silicon atoms. (see Figure1)

Figure 1: The largest silane, hexasilane

Hexasilane is the largest possible silane because Si-Si bonds are not particularly strong. In fact, silanes are rather prone to decomposition. Silanes are particularly prone to decomposition via oxygen. Silanes also have a tendency to swap out there hydrogens for other elements and become organosilanes. (see Figure 2)

Figure 2: The organosilane, dichlorodimethylsilane

Silanes have a variety of industrial and medical uses. Among other things, silanes are used as water repellents and sealants.