A primer on organosilicon chemistry.
Organosilicon chemistry is easily understood because a few generalizations allow us to compare it with the chemistry of carbon, hydrogen and the metals. A silyl group is used in organic synthesis as a metallic substitute for a hydrogen atom, metallic enough in character to control both the site of attack by an electrophile and the position of the final double bond. The silyl group can be thought of as a kind of super-proton. Organosilicon biochemistry is beginning to exist because of the possibility of incorporating silyl groups into drugs, and because the secondary metabolism of silicon-containing compounds is being studied.
D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D002621:Chemistry; D012825:Silicon; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
D012825:Silicon