To improve product yield and reduce industrial cost, triethoxysilane was directly synthesized from silicon and ethanol using copper(I) chloride prepared by inverse disproportionation as primary catalyst and ammonium fluoride as cocatalyst. The catalysts was characterized by X-ray diffractomer (XRD), X-ray fluorescence Spectrometer (XRF), scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Orthogonal experiment was used to explore the influences of some factors on the silicon conversion, triethoxysilane selectivity and yield. It was found that the effect order of factors on the triethoxysilane yield is mass ratio of primary catalysts in silicon, reaction temperature, dropping speed of ethanol, mass ratio of cocatalysts in silicon, mass ratio of silicon in solvent. Under the optimized conditions, the triethoxysilane yield could reach 86.35%.
