Methylsilane

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A chemical compound consisting of a silicon atom bonded to a methyl group and hydrogen atoms, used in organosilicon chemistry and material science
2. An organosilicon hydride featuring a silicon center attached to one methyl substituent and hydrogen atoms, commonly applied as a reagent or precursor in synthesis
3. A molecule containing silicon bonded to a methyl group and multiple hydrogen atoms, notable in chemical industries for its use in producing silicon-based materials and coatings

Etymology: Methylsilane is a systematic chemical name, built the way chemists name compounds by joining the parts of a molecule. "Methyl" comes from the Greek "methy" meaning wine or alcoholic drink, plus "hyle," wood or substance, because the chemist Jean-Baptiste Dumas and Eugène Péligot named methyl alcohol "methylene" in 1834 after it was distilled from wood. The group name "methyl" was later applied to the CH3 unit found in many organic molecules. "Silane" is a separate coinage. "Silicon" was named in 1817 by Thomas Thomson from the Latin "silex," meaning flint, with the "-on" ending borrowed from "carbon" to mark it as a nonmetal. Chemists then added "-ane," the suffix used for saturated hydrocarbons such as methane, to form "silane" for the hydride of silicon, SiH4. Putting the two together gives a name that reads directly from structure: a methyl group attached to a silane backbone. The name was not in use before the nineteenth century, when these chemical nomenclature systems were developed.

Synonyms: silicon methyl hydride, organosilicon compound