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Chemists used N-heterocyclic carbenes to stabilize disilicon and make two small silicon oxide molecules, Si2O3 and Si2O4. The molecules could be isolated and examined, but they remained highly reactive—not durable, soluble versions of ordinary sand.
What the chemists made
In 2015, a team led by Gregory Robinson at the University of Georgia reported synthesizing small molecular silicon oxides using a carbene-stabilization strategy. Their work concerns discrete molecules, not the extended silicon-oxygen networks found in materials such as quartz or glass. The distinction matters: making a small oxide molecule does not make bulk silica behave like a soluble or easily handled substance.
The report in Chemistry World, published 20 April 2015, describes the underlying paper by Y. Wang and colleagues in Nature Chemistry (DOI: 10.1038/nchem.2234). The reported approach began with disilicon stabilized by N-heterocyclic carbenes, a class of molecules that can bind and help stabilize reactive chemical species.
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According to the report, the researchers added different oxidants to the carbene-stabilized disilicon solution in toluene at room temperature. The two reactions produced different molecular oxides:
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| Product | Oxidant reported | Central ring structure reported |
|---|---|---|
| Si2O3 | Nitrous oxide | Three-membered ring |
| Si2O4 | Oxygen | Four-membered ring |
The report says X-ray crystallography provided enough structural evidence to determine the products’ molecular arrangements, with structural calculations also reported. It does not establish a stability ranking between the two products.
Why “longer-lived” does not mean stable
The compounds were reactive: the report says they decomposed immediately when exposed to additional oxidant. Researchers nevertheless isolated enough material for crystallographic analysis. In this context, “longer-lived” signals that the molecules could be made and studied under controlled conditions; it does not mean they were shelf-stable or suitable for ordinary handling.
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The broader chemical challenge is that silicon-oxygen chemistry is familiar in robust extended networks, while small molecular oxides and low-oxidation-state silicon species can be much more reactive. The carbene ligands helped make these particular molecular species synthetically accessible, but the report does not establish a general recipe for making stable silicon oxide materials.
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What applications were proposed—and what was demonstrated
Herbert Roesky of the University of Göttingen called the result “an amazing result which will have a number of applications in depositing SiO2 on surfaces of various materials.” That was his assessment at the time, not evidence that surface-deposition applications had already been demonstrated.
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Robinson described the approach as making “molecular silicon oxide moieties” synthetically approachable and said the team believed other highly reactive main-group oxides might also be accessible using the strategy. Those statements point to possible research directions. The 2015 report does not establish a commercial product, practical method for depositing silica, or later application of the molecules.
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