What is "silabenzene"

A silabenzene is a heteroaromatic compound containing one or more silicon atoms instead of carbon atoms in benzene. A single substitution gives silabenzene proper; additional substitutions give a disilabenzene (3 theoretical isomers), trisilabenzene (3 isomers), etc.

Silabenzenes have been the targets of many theoretical and synthetic studies by organic chemists interested in the question of whether analogs of benzene with Group IV elements heavier than carbon, e.g., silabenzene, stannabenzene and germabenzene—so-called "heavy benzenes"—exhibit aromaticity.

Although several heteroaromatic compounds bearing nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur atoms have been known since the early stages of organic chemistry, silabenzene had been considered to be a transient, un-isolable compound and was detected only in low-temperature matrices or as its Diels-Alder adduct for a long time. In recent years, however, a kinetically stabilized silabenzene and other heavy aromatic compounds with silicon or germanium atoms have been reported.