Group 14 inorganic hydrocarbon analogues.

Hydrocarbons are ubiquitous in our daily lives due to their use as commodity materials (e.g. polyethylene) and fuels. Heavier Group 14 element hydrides, termed herein as "inorganic hydrocarbon analogues", often exhibit divergent reactivity with respect to their organic congeners. In addition to expanding our general knowledge with respect to periodic trends, inorganic Group 14 hydrides have a prominent role in industry as gaseous, and now liquid-phase, precursors to semi-conducting films; furthermore, these species have been successfully used to prepare nanomaterials of controllable shape and function. This Review covers these exciting fields of study along with providing computationally-derived insights from the literature as they pertain to the reactivity and structural diversity of inorganic hydrocarbon analogues (118 references).