I Because water is polar and CCl4 is non-polar, CCl4 is insoluble in water. There are no vacant orbitals on the carbon atom to absorb the electrons given by oxygen in water. Because Si possesses an empty d orbital to accommodate the electrons from the oxygen atom in water, SiCl4 is easily hydrolyzed.

(ii) The energy difference between the Carbon-Carbon and Silicon-Silicon bond energies is quite large, indicating that carbon has a higher potential to produce catenation than silicon.