The bakerian lecture organic derivatives of silicon

Abstract

Although silicon, next to oxygen, is the most abundant of the earth’s elements, it plays, so far as is known, a very insignificant part in the chemistry of living organisms. It occurs, it is true, in a combined state in many plants, often in considerable proportions, but apparently only in the form of silica and mineral silicates, the exact functions of which have not been determined. In the animal world the presence of silicon compounds seems to be unknown except for the interesting case recorded by Drechsel (1897), who isolated from feathers a compound which was believed to be an ester of orthosilicic acid of the composition Si(OC 34 H 59 O) 4 . It is not surprising, therefore, that owing to the great lack of materials which offered facilities to the investigator, the development of the chemistry of silicon has been comparatively very slow in many directions; so long as silica and the intractable mineral silicates were the only available sources of that element little could be done.