Preparation of Silane: From Laboratory to Industrial Production
The preparation of silane has gone through a process from laboratory exploration to industrial large-scale production. In the early days, Moissen used lithium silicide to react with acid to obtain SiH ₄ and a small amount of Si ₂ H ₆. Stock and his colleagues first reduced SiO ₂ with magnesium to obtain "magnesium silicide", which was then reacted with aqueous acid to obtain various silanes. However, these methods have lower yields because silane rapidly hydrolyzes in aqueous acids. To improve the yield, scientists continuously improve methods, such as Johnson using ammonium bromide liquid ammonia solution as an acid to prepare silane, Kuratomi et al. using NH ₄ SCN to react with Mg ₂ Si in liquid ammonia medium, obtaining SiH ₄ with a yield of up to 81%.


In modern industrial production, the dismutation method is often used. Using metallurgical grade silicon and SiCl ₄ as raw materials, SiCl ₄, Si, and H ₂ are first reacted to generate SiHCl V3, which then undergoes a dismutation reaction to generate SiH ₂ Cl ₂. Finally, SiH ₂ Cl ₂ catalyzes the dismutation reaction to generate SiH ₄. The silane produced can be used for the production of high-purity silicon and other materials after distillation purification. In addition, the fluidized bed method is also an important preparation process. The United Carbon Company in the United States developed this technology in the early years, and currently Norway's Renewable Energy Company (REC), Germany's Wacker, and other companies use this method to produce granular polycrystalline silicon.