Over half a century with organosilicon chemistry

Abstract

On the occasion of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan (BCSJ), this Account summarizes major topics from our research in organosilicon chemistry conducted over more than half a century, beginning in the mid-1960s. The following 6 areas are discussed: (1) reactions of disilanes as fundamental units of polysilanes; (2) cyclic compounds containing an Si–Si bond, including monocyclic, bicyclic, and tricyclic systems; (3) hypercoordinated silicon chemistry; (4) preparation and reactions of silicon-functionalized silyl anions; (5) conformational dependence of the photophysical properties of oligosilanes, addressing long-standing questions concerning σ-conjugation from both experimental and theoretical perspectives; and (6) silicon-containing π-conjugated systems: siloles and air-stable disilenes.