Sonochemical Emulsion Synthesis of New Metal-Metal Bond Branched Silicon and Germanium Polymers

A new synthetic approach has been developed for the synthesis of new and existing silicon and germanium metal-metal bonded polymers. The method employs high intensity ultrasound to instantaneously emulsify liquid alkali metal alloys during their reaction with ethereal solutions of R sub 1 R sub 2 MCI sub 2 (R sub 1,R sub 2=alkyl or aryl, M=Si or Ge), providing an extremely fast but controlled route to polysilanes and polygermanes ([R sub 1 R sub 2 M]n).