Inorganic polymer

This article is a stub. It needs to be expanded.

This page is about some exotic inorganic polymers.
Related a bit to the page: Oddball compounds.

For a discussion about …
– polymers in general and
– why 1D chain molecules might be a bad idea for most but a few cases in gen-gum technology
… see page the page about polymers.

Even without covalent cross-linking inter chain forces may be so high that
they prevent nice rubber like behavior.
Permanent plastic macroscale deformation and nanoscale chain ruptures from macroscale bending may be to expect?

Also note that (except the silicones) many of the here listed polymers may not be very stable.
Thermally, mechanically, and chemically.

Some may be chemically aggressive enough to damage human skin on direct contact or
be unstable when exposed to air.

Nonvolatile element polymers

TiF₄ Titanium tetrafluoride (wikipedia) – polymeric in contrast to the other tetrahalides of titanium – melts at 377 °C
Are there more?

Geopolymers? No: They do not form 1D chains but rather crossling in 3D.
Thus calling them "polymers" is a bit of a misnomer.

Related: Emulated elasticity should be possible with nonvolatile elements only.
E.g. done by diamondoid crystolecules with oxygen based nanoscale passivation.

Nitrogen linked inorganic polymers

A large sub-class of inorganic polymers have a backbone
with interspersed nitrogen atoms like so [-X-N-] (sidechains are not denoted here).
X can be one of the elements {B,Si,P,S}.

(SN)_X polythiazyl - conductive inorganic polyner chain

Hydrocarbon analogues

Silanes are the silicon analogues to simple basic hydrocarbons where
all the silicon atoms are replaced by
Polygermanes
Polystannanes – as tin can behave nonmetallic covalently – see: Grey tin

Elemental

Elemental sulfur can form long linear chains
Elemental phosphor can feature 2D polymeric structure – 2D materials

Silicones

A well known highly stable sub-class of semi-inorganic polymers are the silicones.
Silicon atoms with organic side-chains interspersed by oxygen atoms like so: [-SiR₂-O-].