Synthesis of Polysilanes Using Mg and Lewis Acid and the Consideration of This Reaction Mechanism

Hiroaki Murase¹, Masayuki Sugimoto¹, Hiroyuki Nishimura², Kazushi Yamada^2*

¹Osaka Gas Co., Ltd., Osaka, Japan.
²Advanced Fibro-Science, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Kyoto, Japan.

DOI: 10.4236/msa.2015.66061                

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.

Keywords

Polysilane, Magnesium, Lewis Acid Catalysts

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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