The IR laser photochemistry of monosilane-deuterium mixtures

Abstract The IR laser photochemistry of mixtures of silane and deuterium was investigated from room temperature to 500 K. Deuterated monosilanes, disilanes, H 2 and HD and trace amounts of trisilane were found as gas-phase products. The competitive insertion of silylene into D 2 and SiH 4 was investigated and a relative insertion rate constant of 0.36 for insertion into deuterium relative to silane was obtained. The temperature dependence for these processes was also examined and showed that they exhibited essentially equal activation energies.