Organosilicon chemistry
Silanols, siloxides, and siloxanes

Silanols are analogues of alcohols. They are generally prepared by hydrolysis of silyl chlorides:

Less frequently silanols are prepared by oxidation of silyl hydrides, a reaction that uses a metal catalyst:

Many silanols have been isolated including (CH) SiOH and (C H) SiOH. They are about 500x more acidic than the corresponding alcohols. Siloxides are the deprotonated derivatives of silanols:

Silanols tend to dehydrate to give siloxanes:

Polymers with repeating siloxane linkages are called silicones. Compounds with an Si=O double bond called silanones are extremely unstable.
language:response_language[Dutch]