Reactions of Carbosilanes

Abstract

There are some principal objectives in the study of the reactivity of carbosilanes: First, to what extent are the generally known reactions of Si-functional groups (Chapt. I.2) transferable to the silicon atoms of a carbosilane skeleton? Second, under what circumstances do changes such as Si—C cleavage and rearrangement occur in the molecular skeleton? These objectives overlap partly with those presented in Chapt. II.4 but require separate study. Of particular interest was an investigation into the effects of skeletal substituents on the behavior of the silicon and carbon atoms. Further, what about the stability of the molecular skeleton in compounds containing CH₂ or CCl₂ groups, respectively? What is the effect of SiCl, SiF and SiH groups? What are the reactions of the CCl₂ and CH₂ groups? Here the compounds (Cl₃Si)₂CH₂, (Cl₂Si—CH₂)₃, tetrasilaadamantane and their derivatives served as models for such investigations.