Silanes are saturated chemical compounds with the empirical formula . They are hydrosilanes, a class of compounds that includes compounds with and other bonds. All contain tetrahedral silicon and terminal hydrides. They only have and single bonds. The bond lengths are 146.0 pm for a bond and 233 pm for a bond. The structures of the silanes are analogues of the alkanes, starting with silane, , the analogue of methane, continuing with disilane , the analogue of ethane, etc. They are mainly of theoretical or academic interest.
