Electrochemical reduction of alkoxychlorosilanes for Si–Si bond formation

Electrochemical reduction of alkoxychlorosilanes was studied. Constant current electrolysis of alkoxychlorosilanes in DME using tetrabutylammonium perchlorate as the supporting electrolyte and Cu–Cu as the electrodes led to the formation of homo-coupling products, dialkoxydisilanes, together with small amounts of dialkoxysilanes. When similar electrolysis was carried out in the presence of excess amounts of chloromono- and disilanes under the same conditions alkoxydi- and trisilanes were obtained, respectively, as the corresponding cross-coupling products. A dialkoxychlorosilane was also co-electrolyzed with chlorosilanes to give the respective 1,1-dialkoxydi- and trisilanes.