Structural chemistry of Si-H compounds
The structural chemistry of SiH compounds is a vast topic. I shall touch on only a few aspects of its complexity in this lecture, which could be divided into two parts. The first part deals with some attempts to determine the geometry of molecular silicon compounds, and the second with the application of n.m.r. spectroscopy to some problems of silicon chemistry. In each of these fields, it is a real advantage to work with SiH compounds. In the determination of the structure of a molecule by almost any method, it is easiest to work with the simplest derivative possible; thus SiHa-compounds are much easier to study than SiRa-derivatives, whether by electron diffraction, microwave spectroscopy, or vibrational spectroscopy. In n.m.r., the resonance of H directly bound to Si should give more direct information about the other groups bound to silicon, because the proton is closer to the active site than are protons in alkyl groups attached to the silicon atom.