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replacing carbon with silicon

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black53

Bluelighter
Joined
Oct 27, 2013
Messages
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Has anything like this ever been tried? Would such compounds even be active in humans?

siliconeamphetamine.png

What I have in mind.
 
It wouldn't be stable. Silicon analogues of carbon compounds generally don't behave the same way.
 
Have any idea how unstable we're talking about? Goes bad in a few days or half life measured in minutes?

And I do wonder how it would behave in man and would the amphetamine like drug of silicone based life look similar or totally different? Shame science won't be able to answer lots of those in a long time.
 
black53 said:
Have any idea how unstable we're talking about? Goes bad in a few days or half life measured in minutes?

And I do wonder how it would behave in man and would the amphetamine like drug of silicone based life look similar or totally different? Shame science won't be able to answer lots of those in a long time.
Click to expand...


Have lives measured in microseconds or less (nanoseconds)...
In case of hexasilabenzene ring, it cannot even be formed unless all H is heavily substituted with steric groups much larger than t-butyl (eg, bis-(trimethylsilyl)methyl, or triisopropylphenyl) on every every single H atom.

(Or it burst into flame, then deposit silica nanoparticles around in some microseconds)
 
The molecule you drew couldn't be synthesized. You would be lucky if you could get 2 or 3 silicon atoms connected before it fell apart to silica (sand). Even if you did synthesize it it would need to be stored under vacuum and with no water around. Silicon doesn't form stable double bonds or aromatics, and the Si-H bond is relatively weak compared to C-H bonds, meaning that silanes like to give up their hydrogens. As a result most silicon atoms in drugs don't have hydrogens attached.

lRVvZYU.png


Refs to read:
Organosilicon molecules with medical applications
Pipeline: Odd Elements In Drugs: Silicon
Pipeline: Silicon In Drug Molecules, Not Quite There Yet
 
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There are examples of carbon being replaced by silicon in psychoactive drugs and retaining activity (at least in mice), but this can only be done where you have a quaternary carbon atom attached to four other carbon atoms with single bonds. There are relatively few recreational drugs that contain this substructure, many opioids do but generally the structures are too complex to make the silicon version. Still an interesting idea though...
 
I wonder if there is silicone based life out there how those organisms deal with it.
 
black53 said:
I wonder if there is silicone based life out there how those organisms deal with it.
Click to expand...

I'm imagining hundreds of sand monsters rising up from the desert, moaning 'H' as they shuffle around, losing arms, legs and heads in the process.
 
OP that is an impossible molecule. Si-Si and Si-H bonds are very weak, Si radius is too big to form strong bonds in the same way that carbon does.
 
Can you think of any Si based molecule that would be stable and perhaps be psychoactive?
 
black53 said:
Can you think of any Si based molecule that would be stable and perhaps be psychoactive?
Click to expand...

stable? sure, glass and etc. psychoactive? no, not really.

i guess you might be able to envision some kind of substituted siloxane polymer that could be engineered to interact with certain proteins, but i've never actually seen anything like that
 
Roger&Me said:
lol hence why i said "pyschoactive? no" ;)
Click to expand...
Glass is psychoactive...
1) stare in randomly convex and concave mirror and lens, you will get nausious
2) step on sharp glass accidentally, and you get a sharp rush
3) etc
 
mad_scientist said:
There are examples of carbon being replaced by silicon in psychoactive drugs and retaining activity (at least in mice), but this can only be done where you have a quaternary carbon atom attached to four other carbon atoms with single bonds. There are relatively few recreational drugs that contain this substructure, many opioids do but generally the structures are too complex to make the silicon version. Still an interesting idea though...
Click to expand...

i only know of the following:

www.sciencedirect.com

(R)-Sila-venlafaxine: A selective noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor for the treatment of emesis

Sila-substitution of drugs (the carbon/silicon switch) is a concept that is being successfully used for the development of new chemical entities. The …
www.sciencedirect.com www.sciencedirect.com
 
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