Silane

Silane is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula SiH₄.

Production

Silane is typically produced by reacting magnesium silicide(Mg₂Si) with hydrochloric acid:
${\displaystyle {\ce {Mg2Si + 4 HCl = 2 MgCl2 + SiH4 ^}}}$

Another way to produce silane is to treat silicon with hydrogen chloride gas at around 300 °C to form trichlorosilane(SiHCl₃). The trichlorosilane is then converted into a mixture of silane and silicon tetrachloride(SiCl₄) with help of a catalyst.
${\displaystyle {\ce {Si + 3 HCl = HSiCl3 + H2}}}$
${\displaystyle {\ce {4 HSiCl3 = SiH4 + 3 SiCl4}}}$

Silane can also be produced from silicon dioxide, hydrogen and aluminium^[2]:
${\displaystyle {\ce {3 SiO2 + 6 H2 + 4 Al = 3 SiH4 + 2 Al2O3}}}$

History

Silane was discovered in 1857 when German chemists Heinrich Buff and Friedrich Woehler reacted hydrochloric acid with aluminium silicide.

Properties

Chemical Properties

Silane can self-ignite as it reacts violently with oxygen^[3]:
${\displaystyle {\ce {SiH4 + 2 O2 = SiO2 + 2 H2O}}}$

References

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Silane. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Chemistry Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.