Patent ID: 7429672

Claim:
A process for the Direct Synthesis of trialkoxysilane comprising the steps of: a) forming a reaction mixture comprising a thermally stable solvent, silicon metal and a catalytically effective amount of a nanosized copper catalyst precursor; b) agitating and heating the reaction mixture to form copper-activated silicon therein; and, c) adding to the reaction mixture (i) an alcohol R 1 OH wherein R 1 is an alkyl group containing from 1 to 6 carbon atoms, (ii) a catalyst-promoting amount of at least one CN-containing promoter, wherein the promoter possesses the general formula X-(CN) n wherein X is a hydrocarbon group R 2 of valence n containing from 1 to 40 carbon atoms, and optionally, silicon and/or etheric oxygen, and n is an integer with the value of 1 to 4, the alcohol reacting with the copper-activated silicon to provide trialkoxysilane HSi(OR 1− ) 3 wherein R 1 is as defined.