No abstract

Uncoated mini-tablets seem to be a very promising alternative to liquid formulations and could be used at an earlier age in paediatric drug therapy than previously anticipated.

Amorphous silicon is synthesized by treating the tetrahalosilanes SiX4 (X=Cl, F) with molten sodium in high boiling polar and non-polar solvents such as diglyme or nonane to give a brown or a black solid showing different reactivities towards suitable reagents. With regards to their technical relevance, their stability towards oxygen, air, moisture, chlorine-containing reaction partners RCl (R=H, Cl, Me) and alcohols is investigated. In particular, reactions with methanol are a versatile tool to deliver important products. Besides tetramethoxysilane formation, methanolysis of silicon releases hydrogen gas under ambient conditions and is thus suitable for a decentralized hydrogen production; competitive insertion into the MeO-H versus the Me-OH bond either yields H- and/or methyl-substituted methoxy functional silanes. Moreover, compounds, such as Men Si(OMe)4-n (n=0-3) are simply accessible in more than 75 % yield from thermolysis of, for example, tetramethoxysilane over molten sodium. Based on our systematic investigations we identified reaction conditions to produce the methoxysilanes Men Si(OMe)4-n in excellent (n=0:100 %) to acceptable yields (n=1:51 %; n=2:27 %); the yield of HSi(OMe)3 is about 85 %. Thus, the methoxysilanes formed might possibly open the door for future routes to silicon-based products.