Editing Silicon tetrachloride (section)

==Preparation==
Silicon tetrachloride is prepared by the chlorination of various silicon compounds such as [[ferrosilicon]], [[silicon carbide]], or mixtures of silicon dioxide and carbon. The ferrosilicon route is most common.<ref name=Ullmann>{{ Ullmann | author = Simmler, W. | title = Silicon Compounds, Inorganic | doi = 10.1002/14356007.a24_001 }}</ref>

In the laboratory, {{chem2|SiCl4}} can be prepared by treating [[silicon]] with [[chlorine]] at {{convert|600|C|F}}:<ref name=Brauer/>
:{{chem2|Si + 2 Cl2 → SiCl4}}

It was first prepared by [[Jöns Jakob Berzelius]] in 1823.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Berzelius |first1=Jac. |title=Undersökning af flusspatssyran och dess märkvärdigaste föreningar |journal=Kongliga Vetenskapsakademiens Nya Handlingar [New Proceedings of the Royal Academy of Sciences] |date=1824 |series=3rd series |volume=12 |pages=46–98 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/107454#page/54/mode/1up |trans-title=Examination of hydrofluoric acid and its most significant compounds |language=Swedish}}  From [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/107454#page/65/mode/1up pp. 57-58]: "''Då silicium upphettas i en ström ab ''chlor'', tänder det sig och brinner, samt om gasen innehöll atm. luft, lemnar det kiseljord i form af ett ullikt skelett.'' […] ''Silicium glödgadt i en ström af ''iod''gas, har icke kunnat fås att dermed förbinda sig.''" (When silicon is heated in a stream of ''chlorine'', it ignites and burns, as well as if the gas contained atmospheric air, it leaves silica in the form of an odd "skeleton".  If the silicon was previously oxidized to some extent, then the siliceous earth also remains.  Silicon burns in chlorine with equal slowness, whether it has lost its flammability in air or not.  The product of the combustion is condensed and forms a liquid, which, when freed from it, should be colorless. This liquid is quite volatile and easy-flowing; it evaporates in the open air, almost instantly, with the emission of a white smoke and with a residue of siliceous earth. It has a pungent smell, somewhat like cyanide; precipitated in water, it quickly floats up, dissolves for the most part, but leaves a little siliceous earth undissolved; if the quantity of water is small, e.g., a drop of each, then the chlorosilicon floats around and the silica becomes undissolved in an exfoliated, semi-transparent state.  This liquid is analogous to the compound of other electronegative substances with chlorine.  Reacts like acid with litmus paper, so that, by its volatility, the paper reddens quite a distance from the point of contact.  It is the second known example of a compound in which silicon is volatile.  At the ordinary temperature of the air, potassium does not act on it; but if it is heated in the gas of chlorosilicon, it ignites and burns, with a residue of silicon-bound potassium.  Silicon heated in a stream of ''iodine'' gas, could not be made to bond with it.)</ref>

[[Brine]] can be contaminated with [[silica]] when the production of chlorine is a byproduct of a metal refining process from metal chloride ore. In rare occurrences, the [[silicon dioxide]] in silica is converted to silicon tetrachloride when the contaminated brine is [[electrolysis|electrolyzed]].<ref name="White Chlorine">{{cite book|last1=White|first1=George Clifford|title=The handbook of chlorination|date=1986|publisher=Van Nostrand Reinhold|location=New York|isbn=0-442-29285-6|pages=33–34|edition=2nd}}</ref>