Dehydrogenative silane coupling

Fig. 6 Hydrogen scrambling bottom) and dehydrogenative silane coupling top) as competing processes between a metal hydride and a silane...

Li Y-H, Buriak JM (2006) Dehydrogenative silane coupling on silicon surfaces via early transition metal catalysis. Inorg Chem 45 1096-1102... 

Rare-Earth Complex-Catalyzed Dehydrogenative Cross-Coupling of Silanes and Amines 139... 

RARE-EARTH COMPLEX-CATALYZED DEHYDROGENATIVE CROSS-COUPLING OF SILANES AND AMINES... 

Dehydrogenative Coupling of Hydride Functional Silanes. The autocouphng of dihydridosilanes was first observed usiag Wilkinson s catalyst (128). A considerable effort has been undertaken to enhance catalyst turnover and iacrease the molecular weight of polysilane products (129) because the materials have commercial potential ia ceramic, photoresist, and conductive polymer technology. 

With the stable donor adducts of silylene complexes, valuable model compounds are now available for reactive intermediates which otherwise cannot be observed directly. For example, a side reaction occurring in the hydrosilation process [61 -63], is the dehydrogenative coupling of silanes to disilanes. This reaction could be explained in terms of a silylene transfer reaction with a coordinated silylene as the key intermediate. 

Recent investigations have been concerned with the reactivities observed with secondary silanes R2SiH2. In these cases, a dehydrogenative coupling of silanes to disilanes is observed as a side reaction of the hydrosilation. However, the hydrosilation can be totally suppressed if the olefins are omitted. The key intermediate in the coupling reaction has been identified as a silylene complex (sect. 2.5.4). 

The dehydrogenative coupling of silanes does not stop at the stage of disilanes in the coordination sphere of early transition metals like Zr and Hf, but chain polymers of low molecular weight are formed. As reactive intermediates in this reaction, silylene complexes are also assumed. However, alternative mechanisms have been discussed (sect. 2.5.4). 

Hydride species were also formed in the dehydrogenative coupling of hydrosilanes with DMF [45]. The catalytic system is applicable to tertiary silanes, which are known to be difficult to be converted into disiloxanes (Fig. 17). The catalytic reaction pathway involves the intermediacy of a hydrido(disilyl)iron complex... 

Itazaki M, Ueda K, Nakazawa H (2009) Iron-catalyzed dehydrogenative coupling of tertiary silanes. Angew Chem Int Ed 48 3313-3316... 

Further studies quickly revealed that the rapid dehydrogenative coupling of primary organosilanes to oligomers and the slower coupling of secondary silanes to dimers can be effected under ambient conditions with compounds of the type CP2MR2 (M = Ti, R = alkyl M = Zr, R = alkyl or H)(11,12,13). None of the other metallocenes, metallocene alkyls, or metallocene hydrides of groups 4, 5 or 6 have shown any measurable activity for polymerization... 

More recently, it was the seminal work of Aitken, Harrod and Samuel which showed that Group IV metallocene compounds catalyzed the dehydrogenative coupling of primary silanes, RSiH3, to give polysilanes of relatively low molecular weight, [RSiH] [8], that attracted many others into the silicon/transition metal chemistry field [9],... 

The properties of siloxide as ancillary ligand in the system TM-O-SiRs can be effectively utilized in molecular catalysis, but predominantly by early transition metal complexes. Mono- and di-substituted branched siloxy ligands (e.g., incompletely condensed silsesquioxanes) have been employed as more advanced models of the silanol sites on silica surface for catalytically active centers of early TM (Ti, W, V) that could be effectively used in polymerization [5], metathesis [6] and epoxidation [7] of alkenes as well as dehydrogenative coupling of silanes [8]. 

Dehydrogenative Coupling. Transition-metal catalyzed polymerization of silanes appears to hold promise as a viable route to polysilanes. A number of transition-metal complexes have been investigated, with titanium and zirconium complexes being the most promising (105—108). Only primary silanes are active toward polymerization, and molecular weights are rather low. The dehydrogenative polymerization is depicted in reaction 11, where Cp = cyclopentadienyl ... 

Besides the cr-bond metathesis mechanism proposed by Tilley23 for the dehydrogenative coupling of silanes, a Zr(II) pathway25 and a silylene mechanism26 have been proposed based on the nature of the products. The dehydrogenative polymerization of 1,2,3-trimethyltrisilane or of a mixture of diastereomers of 1,2,3,4-tetramethyltetrasilane showed evidence that, besides Tilley s mechanism, a further mechanism is present. The product formation can be explained by a silylene mechanism where the silylenes are formed by a-elimination from the silyl complexes by a new type of /J-elimination which involves Si—Si bond cleavage (/F-bond elimination) as described in Scheme 727. 

C. Phosphine-alanes as bifunctional cocatalysts for the Ni-catalyzed dehydrogenative coupling of silanes... 

---