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Wacker-Chemie

Argonne National Laboratory

NSF

Most divalent silicon compounds (silylenes) are extremely reactive and unstable, decomposing even at -100 degrees Celsius. The discovery of stable silylenes by our group in 1994 has led to a major new area of organosilicon chemistry. The stable silylenes being studied at OSiRC are 1 and 2.  1 is monomeric, whereas 2 is in equilibrium with its tetramer:

Silylenes 1 and 2 have a rich chemistry. They participate in cycloaddition reactions, serve as ligands in transition metal complexes, and act as catalysts. The chemistry of stable silylenes is currently being explored.

See a PowerPoint presentation on silylenes

Polysiloxanes

Lithium batteries are coming into wide use, because they produce energy density 4 or 5 times as great as that of conventional storage batteries. Today's lithium batteries employ liquid electrolytes, but for some uses, a solid electrolyte is greatly preferred--especially for implantable cells to treat a variety of medical conditions, including heart failure, epilepsy, spinal cord damage, and intractable pain.

The Organosilicon Research Center is working to design and develop solid electrolytes for lithium cells, based on silicon chemistry. These are polysiloxane (Si-O) polymers, in which the siloxane chain provides great flexibility, with oligomeric ethyleneoxide side groups to complex the lithium cations:

Siloles and Silafluorenes

Multiply-bonded Organosilicon and Germanium Compounds

The organosilicon group at Wisconsin pioneered the synthesis and study of compounds containing Si=Si, Si=N, and Si=C=C multiple bonds. Recently, we have discovered a new reaction of silole dianions, leading to stable compounds with silicon-carbon double bonds, for example:

Syntheses following this pattern are expected to lead to many new types of multiply-bonded silicon compounds. Some examples are:

Compounds with double bonds to silicon are well-established, but no triple bonds to silicon are yet known. Following various routes, we are planning to synthesize triply-bonded silicon compounds, RSiSiR, or RSiCR'.

Recent publications on multiply-bonded silicon and germanium compounds