General
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Name | Silane |
Chemical formula | SiH4 |
Appearance | Colourless gas |
Physical
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Formula weight | 32.1 amu |
Melting point | 88 K (-185 °C) |
Boiling point | 161 K (-112 °C) |
Density | 0.7 ×103 kg/m3 (liquid) |
Solubility | insoluble |
Thermochemistry
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ΔfH0gas | ? kJ/mol |
ΔfH0liquid | ? kJ/mol |
ΔfH0solid | -1615 kJ/mol |
S0gas, 1 bar | ? J/mol·K |
S0liquid, 1 bar | ? J/mol·K |
S0solid | 283 J/mol·K |
Safety
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Ingestion | Relatively low toxicity, but avoid exposure where possible. |
Inhalation | Relatively low toxicity: may cause coughing, hyperventilation. |
Skin | Irritant, may cause redness and swelling. |
Eyes | As for skin, may cause irritation. |
More info | Hazardous Chemical Database |
SI units were used where possible. Unless otherwise stated, standard conditions were used. |
More generally, a silane is any silicon analog of an alkane hydrocarbon. Silanes consist of a chain of silicon atoms covalently bound to hydrogen atoms. The general formula of a silane is SinH2n+2. Silanes tend to be less stable than their carbon analogs because the Si-Si bond has a strength slightly lower than the C-C bond. Oxygen decomposes silanes easily, because the silicon-oxygen bond is quite stable.
There exists a regular nomenclature for silanes. Each silane's name is the word silane preceded by a numerical prefix (di, tri, tetra, etc.) for the number of silicon atoms in the molecule. Thus Si2H6 is disilane, Si3H8 is trisilane, and so forth. There is no prefix for one; SiH4 is simply silane. Silanes can also be named like any other inorganic compound; in this naming system, silane is named silicon tetrahydride. However, with longer silanes, this becomes cumbersome.
A cyclosilane is a silane in a ring, just as a cycloalkane is an alkane in a ring.
Branched silanes are possible. The radical SiH3- is names silyl, Si2H5- is disilanyl etc. If we have trisilane with a silyl group attached to the middle silicon, we have silyltrisilane. It parallels alkanes.
Silanes can also take the same functional groups as alkanes, OH to make a silanol. There is (at least in principle) a silicon analogue for all carbon alkanes.
Industrially, silane is produced from metallurgical grade silicon in a two-step process. In the first step, powdered silicon is reacted with hydrchloric acid at about 300°C to produce trichlorosilane, HSiCl3, along with hydrogen gas, according to the chemical equation
Production
The trichlorosilane is then boiled on a resinous bed containing a catalyst which promotes its disproportionation to silane and silicon tetrachloride according to the chemical equation