To a certain extent, silicon chemistry developed in the shadow of
organic chemistry. The development may be divided into three stages:
(1) period of mimicking, when investigators of silicon chemistry relied
on tenuous analogies to organic chemistry and on speculation that a
framework reminiscent of organic chemistry could be developed;
(2) period of realization of the close similarities and gross differences
between the two chemistries; and (3) period of utilization of these
differences in various applications. The latter is evidenced by the rapid
growth in studies using organosilicon compounds for special organic
syntheses. As a result, it is perhaps reasonable to state that silicon
chemistry will soon become divided into two areas of almost equal
importance: conventional organosilicon chemistry and silaorganic
chemistry. Similarly, silylene chemistry seems to have developed in the
shadow of carbene chemistry. This is particularly obvious, as one often
finds the silylenes referred to in the literature as “carbene analogues.”