Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => Organic Chemistry Forum => Organic Chemistry Forum for Graduate Students and Professionals => Topic started by: blackcat on January 11, 2020, 03:03:08 PM
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I am wondering if anyone has used phenylsilane (PhSiH3).
Is it super reactive? Is it nice to handle, without special caution like glove box?
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Dangerous Compound.
Check MSDS
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.gelest.com/wp-content/uploads/product_msds/SIP6750.0-msds.pdf&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwiV7qW3tfzmAhUH06YKHddsDl8QFjABegQICRAB&usg=AOvVaw3Y9wO9f2nVKonWo1c6pTvw
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Most silanes are an extreme explosion hazard, because Si-H is too fragile. A semiconductor plant was blown up by silane. Only 200M$ at that time.
That is, most of these sly things have an autoignition temperature in air just above ambient temperature, so a leak doesn't always catch fire immediately, but the mixture detonates when it reaches a light bulb, or your lungs, or some unknown catalyst, or because it's Wednesday.
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Most silanes are an extreme explosion hazard, because Si-H is too fragile. A semiconductor plant was blown up by silane. Only 200M$ at that time.
That is, most of these sly things have an autoignition temperature in air just above ambient temperature, so a leak doesn't always catch fire immediately, but the mixture detonates when it reaches a light bulb, or your lungs, or some unknown catalyst, or because it's Wednesday.
Could you share which silane resulted in explosion? When and where is it?
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I just have it in mind from when I was young, during the paleomonolithic era, when channels got 4µm long thanks to polysilicon gates. It was in the US if memory serves.
Plain SiH4 exploded. I expect phenylsilane to have a similar autoignition temperature because its Si-H bonds are as weak, or even weaker due to the phenyl.
Just google
silane explosion
there are many instances, recently with N2O under nasty conditions.
The destructive power isn't worse than other compounds, but the chances of ignition are very high, just with a delay so some amount has accumulated. With natural gas, you have good chances to ventilate the room on time. With silane, about every leak explodes.