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Chemists really. Chem-E’s basically just play IRL Factorio at work. The graphs in Factorio look almost exactly like OSI PiSoft charts, which basically every chemical plant uses.

Cyclopentadiene is a great molecule - it can form 'metallocene' compounds where two cyclopentadiene (Cp) rings 'sandwich' a metal ion between them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallocene

Like Cp--M--Cp where the '--' are an unusual kind of 'bond' which is somewhat like five carbon-metal bonds, although I'm sure there is a more accurate orbital description of the interaction.

"The average person probably only knows the formulas for olivine and one or two feldspars" (https://xkcd.com/2501)

Nah, this is just a strict chemical synthesis problem, no need for the engineers yet, until you want to make ten thousand tons of the stuff.

It's indispensable when dealing with self-sealing stem bolts

> Iwamoto and Scheschkewitz say pentasilacyclopentadienides could be ligands for catalysts and materials.

In this case aromatic means a ring of atoms where there is electron sharing among all the members of the ring.

They're called aromatic rings because before they understood the structure, they grouped them by their behavior, and the aromatics contain a lot of volatile organics like benzene, toluene, phenol, which have strong odors.

If you know, you're probably dead.

"Characteristic", no doubt.

No, it's a super weird molecule that is big, expensive to make and probably form a solid. It can not replace solvents like benzene.

The weird structure of the electrons in the silicon cycle may be useful as a catalyst(or not, it's too early to be sure). Imagine it is like the Platinum in the car exhaust, not the solvent in the paint remover.

This particular silicon compound is unlikely to help much in that direction.

On the other hand, silicone resins and elastomers are already in widespread use in applications where resistance to high temperatures or burning is required (silicone =/= silicon, the former coming from silic-on + ket-one, a name based on a wrong hypothesis).

However, their mechanical resistance is usually modest, so if that is important they must be used either in combinations with other materials or reinforced, e.g. with glass fiber.

They are also more expensive than hydrocarbon-based plastics, so they are typically used only where strictly necessary.