Disilenes bimolecular reactions

The focus of the section on silene reaction kinetics is mainly on studies of bimolecular reactions of transient silene derivatives, because little absolute kinetic data exist for the reactions of stable derivatives and there have been few quantitative studies of the kinetics of unimolecular isomerizations such as ,Z-isomerization and pericyclic rearrangements, although a number of examples of such reactions are of course well known. In contrast, most of the studies of disilene reaction kinetics that have been reported have employed kinetically stable derivatives, and E,Z-isomerization has thus been fairly well characterized. The paucity of absolute rate data for unimolecular isomerizations of transient silenes and disilenes is most likely due to the fact that it is comparatively difficult to obtain reliable data of this type for transient species whose bimolecular reactions (including dimerization) are so characteristically rapid, unless the unimolecular process is itself relatively facile. Such instances are rare, at least for transient silenes and disilenes at ambient temperatures. 

Absolute kinetic data have been reported for four of the characteristic bimolecular reactions of disilenes 1,2-addition of alcohols and phenols (equation 72), [2 + 2]-cycloaddition of ketones (equation 73), [2 +4]-cycloaddition of aliphatic dienes (equation 74) and oxidation with molecular oxygen (equation 75). As with silenes, the addition of alcohols has been studied in greatest detail. 

Kinetic data for other characteristic bimolecular reactions of disilenes are much more limited than is the case with alcohol and phenol additions, and hence contribute little to the understanding that product studies have already provided in regards to reaction mechansims. The only absolute kinetic data known at the present time, for reaction of disilenes 103, 104 and 35 with 2,3-dimethyl-1,3-butadiene, oxygen and a few symmetric n-alkanones in hydrocarbon solution at room temperature, are listed in Table 19. Unfortunately, none of these reactions has been specifically characterized with product studies, as far as we know. The data indicate that the reactivity of relatively nonpolar disilenes toward these reagents decreases in the order ko2 > A r2c=o 1 EtOH >... 

Many bimolecular reactions of disilenes are now known, but very little mechanistic information on them is available. The following organization by mechanistic type (Chart 4) is therefore largely formal and unproven. 

Far more is known about ground-state bimolecular reactions of disilenes than their excited-state counterparts, and we shall consider the former first. 

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