General Concepts and Recent Advances in the Electrochemical Transformation of Chloro- and Hydrosilanes

Organosilanes play an important role in organic synthesis as well as in a variety of further areas, ranging from life science to transportation. Especially, the electrochemical access has become increasingly important in the past years and developed into an essential topic due to new conceptual approaches and mediated reaction control. With the commercial availability of high-quality electrochemical equipment, the technical requirements for electro-conversion are at hand to a wide audience. This results in the need for a concise survey of electrochemical silane transformation, appropriate for novices as well as experts alike. This review provides an overview of the most relevant work in this field, identifies common obstacles in working with chlorosilanes and hydrosilanes and bridges the gap between known techniques and novel methods with respect to their electrochemical conversion. The historical development is outlined with reference to the various cathodic as well as anodic conversions and should encourage to expand the research field of electrochemical silane transformation.