TITLE:
Synthesis of Polysilanes Using Mg and Lewis Acid and the Consideration of This Reaction Mechanism
AUTHORS:
Hiroaki Murase, Masayuki Sugimoto, Hiroyuki Nishimura, Kazushi Yamada
KEYWORDS:
Polysilane, Magnesium, Lewis Acid Catalysts
JOURNAL NAME:
Materials Sciences and Applications,
Vol.6 No.6,
June
26,
2015
ABSTRACT: Reduction of dichlorosilanes with Mg metal in the presence of LiCl and Lewis acid such as FeCl2 or
ZnCl2 was found to be the highly practical method for the synthesis of polysilanes (PS). This method
is so useful and practical that PS can be prepared by stirring dichlorosilanes at room temperature.
This method was successfully applied for the synthesis of various types of PS having a
linear structure, a cyclic structure and silane-styrene copolymers as another type of PS. The
structure of the reaction intermediates was also analyzed. At the initiation stage the results of
FD-MS (Field desorption mass spectrometry) and GPC (Gel permeation chromatography) showed
that linear oligomers were mainly formed by stepwise reactions, and then the high polymers and
cyclic oligomers were formed in parallel.