Renegade343 Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 (edited) I read and discussed about silicon-based lifeforms in arch111's thread, and I ended up asking myself: Is the reaction between silane and water reactive? And so, I ended up having this (do be aware that the chemical formula is assumed. It may not reflect the actual reaction that undergoes between silane and water [if at all]): Pretty exothermic (and spontaneous too). EDIT: Silicon dioxide would be a solid than a gas at 298K. So that is one typo. Edited October 23, 2014 by Renegade343 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 You probably just melted the brains of quite a few people in the forums. However, I must ask what the intention behind this analysis was. Is it at all related to silicon-based lifeforms, or just a mental exercise regarding silane by itself? It's been quite a while since my chemistry years, but I worked five years in quality control for the chemical and pharmaceutics industries, and I still find it interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renegade343 Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 You probably just melted the brains of quite a few people in the forums. However, I must ask what the intention behind this analysis was. Is it at all related to silicon-based lifeforms, or just a mental exercise regarding silane by itself? I get bored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Letter13 Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 The question now though is whether you treat the organic molecular compounds of another planet/alien species as a whole row down (rather than just one row down for Carbon), where they utilize Sulfur gas in the manner we use Oxygen (they may not even need to breathe in that manner because their biology may be that different...) i.e. Li2S instead of H2O, and SiLi4 instead of CH4. So: SiLi4 + 2Li2S = SiS2 + 4Li2 This ought to mimic the interaction between CH4 and H2O, I believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 The question now though is whether you treat the organic molecular compounds of another planet/alien species as a whole row down (rather than just one row down for Carbon), where they utilize Sulfur gas in the manner we use Oxygen (they may not even need to breathe in that manner because their biology may be that different...) i.e. Li2S instead of H2O, and SiLi4 instead of CH4. So: SiLi4 + 2Li2S = SiS2 + 4Li2 This ought to mimic the interaction between CH4 and H2O, I believe. Lithium is probably not gonna work like that. Hydrogen is put above it while it actually deserves its own category in the periodic table. The main question is if we're talking about silicon-based lifeforms in the sense of "their carbon chains are silicon chains", or if they're carbon-based but use silicon one way or another, like some actual microorganisms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KhamulBaal Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 I think I have to go back to school... ._. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dhrekr Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 The question now though is whether you treat the organic molecular compounds of another planet/alien species as a whole row down (rather than just one row down for Carbon), where they utilize Sulfur gas in the manner we use Oxygen (they may not even need to breathe in that manner because their biology may be that different...) i.e. Li2S instead of H2O, and SiLi4 instead of CH4. So: SiLi4 + 2Li2S = SiS2 + 4Li2 This ought to mimic the interaction between CH4 and H2O, I believe. I am no chemist, but SiLi4 doesn't seem to be a thing. While counting the electrons works, it is not listed as a compound, and is probably extremely unstable. Much easier working with silane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Letter13 Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 I am no chemist, but SiLi4 doesn't seem to be a thing. While counting the electrons works, it is not listed as a compound, and is probably extremely unstable. Much easier working with silane. SiLi4 does seem to be a thing, but apparently it does all sorts of extremely weird things (it violates Van't Hoff and electrostatic bonding principles due to it having a nontetrahedral structure, which is odd because it's expected to have a tetrahedral structure due to its bonding). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notlamprey Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 I love this kind of scientific spitballing. It's even more interesting when you consider that we still can't be sure the laws of physics are constant across the observable universe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagPrime Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 I think I have to go back to school... ._. I feel stupid every time I come into one of Renegades threads. :s But I use it as incentive to go back to school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renegade343 Posted October 24, 2014 Author Share Posted October 24, 2014 The question now though is whether you treat the organic molecular compounds of another planet/alien species as a whole row down (rather than just one row down for Carbon), where they utilize Sulfur gas in the manner we use Oxygen (they may not even need to breathe in that manner because their biology may be that different...) i.e. Li2S instead of H2O, and SiLi4 instead of CH4. So: SiLi4 + 2Li2S = SiS2 + 4Li2 This ought to mimic the interaction between CH4 and H2O, I believe. This is calculating what would happen if we were to introduce silicon-based lifeforms into Earth's atmosphere (that has water vapour). After all, long silicon chains do tend to react all by themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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