Silicon tetraiodide is the
chemical compound
A chemical compound is a chemical substance composed of many identical molecules (or molecular entities) containing atoms from more than one chemical element held together by chemical bonds. A molecule consisting of atoms of only one element ...
with the formula
Si I4. It is a tetrahedral molecule with Si-I bond lengths of 2.432(5) Å.
SiI
4 is a precursor to silicon amides of the formula Si(NR
2)
4 (R = alkyl). It has also been of interest in the manufacture and etching of silicon in
microelectronics
Microelectronics is a subfield of electronics. As the name suggests, microelectronics relates to the study and manufacture (or microfabrication) of very small electronic designs and components. Usually, but not always, this means micrometre ...
.
Synthesis and reactions
This compound is produced by treating silicon-copper mixture with iodine:
:
It reacts quickly with water and moisture in the air.
It can also be made on a large scale by reaction of silicon or
silicon carbide
Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum (), is a hard chemical compound containing silicon and carbon. A wide bandgap semiconductor, it occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite, but has been mass-produced as a powder a ...
with iodine on heating to about 200 °C. Of more academic interest is the reaction of
silane with iodine vapour at 130 - 150 °C, as this produces a series of compounds ranging from
iodosilane SiH
3I to
diiodosilane SiH
2I
2 and
triiodosilane SiHI
3 as well. These compounds are colourless liquids at room temperature.
The last one can be readily distinguished from the similar carbon compound,
iodoform which is a yellow solid at room temperature.
Comparison with other SiX4 compounds
References
External links
webelements page
Iodides
Inorganic silicon compounds
Nonmetal halides
{{inorganic-compound-stub