The dimerization mechanism in this study proceeds differently from previous mechanisms proposed. Instead of forming a chemically reactive nucleophile such as H3SiO4 -, or forcing two monomers to bond together, the conversion to the zwitterion isomer turns one monomer into a target for nucleophilic attack by a neighboring H4SiO4. This mechanism can be more easily extended to oligomerization since it only requires a dangling -OH group from the other reactant (fig. ). The relative rates between pure water and salt present cases that are expected from their activation energies are in agreement with the observed enhancement of rates with ionic strength.