Recent Progress in the Electrochemical Synthesis of Polysilanes

Abstract

Polymers containing silicon in the main chain have attracted considerable attention due to their usefulness as the precursors for thermally stable ceramics or materials for microlithography, and also due to their potentiality in the preparation of new types of material showing conducting, photoconducting, or nonlinear optical property. One of the most important innovation required in this field is the introduction of suitable functional groups into the polymer since the property of silicon containing polymers must remarkably be modified by such functional groups. We have recently found that the electroreduction ofchlorosilanes with Mg electrodes is highly useful for the practical method for the synthesis of polysilane (PS) high polymers (Scheme 1).^1,2