Methane (CH4) is the simplest hydrocarbon and the primary constituent of natural gas.
Even though it is not waxy it is also considered a paraffin. Like other paraffins it is largely inert except for that one little reaction with oxygen where it burns readily releasing great energy. But that usually requires contacting a spark or flame or there is no reaction.
The silicon analog is silane (SiH4), it spontaneously combusts quite easily without any spark at all.
The reason this is important is not because the molecule has any practical utility, either now or in the future. Most of the reactions it participates in will probably be various decompositions of itself into other. The real importance comes from what this molecule can teach us about the laws of nature--why Si is the way it is, so distinct from carbon. Specifically, how do the valence electrons of Si manage in a 5 member ring? What does that wave-function look like, and does it agree with our predictions? Do we understand this corner of the universe as well as we think we do? Orbitals are tricky things to compute, so we need difficult to construct molecules to test our calculations.
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[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 26.6 ms ] threadCHEM-Es are build a little different from the rest of us.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilithium
Even though it is not waxy it is also considered a paraffin. Like other paraffins it is largely inert except for that one little reaction with oxygen where it burns readily releasing great energy. But that usually requires contacting a spark or flame or there is no reaction.
The silicon analog is silane (SiH4), it spontaneously combusts quite easily without any spark at all.