Silicone oil is generally a colorless and transparent liquid. It has excellent heat resistance, cold resistance, and moisture resistance. Silicone oil also has very little change in viscosity over a wide temperature range and has excellent electrical properties. It also has properties such as mold release, water repellency, lubricity, and antifoaming properties.

Silanes are a category of silicon compounds such as chlorosilanes, alkoxysilanes, and silazane. Silanes are used in a variety of fields, taking advantage of the unique properties of silicon compounds. Silicones are presented in all industries.

The most common silicone compound, polydimethylsiloxane, is capable of illustrating the central characteristics of the class. The starting material is metallic silicon, which is made from silica sand. Silicon reacts with methylchloride (CH3Cl) over a copper catalyst, forming dimethyldichlorosilane ([CH3]2Si[Cl]2). By reacting with water, chlorine atoms are substituted by hydroxyl (OH) groups.

The resulting unstable compound, silanol ([CH3]2Si[OH]2), polymerizes, in a condensation reaction, single-unit molecules linking together to form poly-dimethylsiloxane with concomitant loss of water.

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