Direct synthesis of alkyldialkoxysilanes by the reaction of silicon, alcohol and alkene using a high-pressure flow reactor

In the reaction of silicon, methanol and ethylene, use of a high-pressure flow reactor operating at 240°C at 0.86 MPa of ethylene and 0.18 MPa of methanol gave a 33% selectivity for ethyldimethoxysilane, which was much higher than that using an atmospheric-pressure flow reactor (8%) or using an autoclave (4%). The selectivity increased proportionally with the ethylene pressure below 0.5 MPa. This indicates that the addition of ethylene or methanol to a surface silylene intermediate determines the selectivity and that the ethylene addition is a first-order reaction. Above 0.5 MPa the slope of the selectivity change was smaller. By feeding propylene instead of ethylene, n- and iso-propyldimethoxysilanes were obtained as organosilanes with 15 and 2% of selectivity, respectively. The reaction of silicon, ethanol and ethylene resulted in 28% selectivity for ethyldiethoxysilane at 0.99 MPa of ethylene and 0.21 MPa of ethanol at 240°C.