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Updated: Mar 16, 2026

Imine Metathesis by Silica-Supported Catalysts Using the Methodology of Surface Organometallic Chemistry
Published on: October 18, 2019
Formation of Higher Silanes in Low-Temperature Silane (SiH4) Ices
György Tarczay1, Marko Förstel1, Pavlo Maksyutenko1
1Department of Chemistry and W. M. Keck Research Laboratory in Astrochemistry, University of Hawaii at Manoa , Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, United States.
Abstract:
A novel approach for the synthesis and identification of higher silanes (SinH2n+2, where n ≤ 19) is presented. Thin films of (d4-)silane deposited onto a cold surface were exposed under ultra-high-vacuum conditions to energetic electrons and sampled on line and in situ via infrared and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. Gas phase products released by fractional sublimation in the warm-up phase after the irradiation were probed via a reflectron time-of-flight mass spectrometer coupled with a tunable vacuum ultraviolet photon ionization source. The formation mechanisms of (higher) silanes were investigated by irradiating codeposited 1:1 silane (SiH4)/d4-silane (SiD4) ices, suggesting that both radical-radical recombination and radical insertion pathways contribute to the formation of disilane along with higher silanes up to nonadecasilane (Si19H40).
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