Disilenes isolable

Disilenes, containing the grouping >Si=Si<, can be isolated as thermally stable yellow or orange crystalline compounds provided that the substituents are sufficiently large to prevent... 

Recently, a variety of silylenes were generated and characterized by matrix isolation techniques. The observed loose donor adducts between silylenes and the matrix molecules (THF, CO) are only stable at very low temperatures. Melting of the matrix induces polymerization of the silylenes which proceeds through disilenes. However, 0->Si transfer reactions do not occur only in the case of 1-methyl-THF has an insertion of the silylene into the C —O bond been observed [155-158],... 

The classic problem of the silicon-silicon double bond dates back at least to the early part of this century, when F. S. Kipping and his students attempted unsuccessfully to synthesize disilenes. Evidence for the probable transient existence of disilenes began to appear in the 1970s, but it was the isolation of the stable disilene 1 in 19811 that opened up modem disilene chemistry. The early history of this discovery has been recounted in a review2 several other reviews covering Si=Si double bonds have been published.2 5... 

Quite unusual reactions take place between disilenes and the active forms of the group 15 elements, P4 and As4. In nearly all reactions of disilenes, the Si—Si w-bond is broken in the first step, leaving the products isolated from the reaction of disilenes 1,11, and 12 with P4 were found to have the [1.1. OJbicyclobutane structure 698-c.98,99 In these butterflyshaped compounds the silicon atoms are completely separated, although a P—P [Pg.266]

The chemistry of silylene-metal complexes has developed in quite another direction, however, from reactions of disilyl-metal complexes, leading to complexes of otherwise unstable disilenes such as Me2Si=SiMe2. Molybdenum and tungsten complexes have been particularly well investigated by Berry and co-workers,103 and platinum complexes have also been isolated.104 Readers interested in this field are directed to a 1992 review of silylene, silene, and disilene-metal complexes.105... 

Successes in producing reactive intermediates like o-xylylene and carbene and in preparing bimetal lies in high yields using ultrasound led us to attempt to generate West s novel compound, tetramesityldisilene the first example of a stable species with a silicon-silicon double bond(32). We prepared this species in one step and trapped it with methanol(33). The disilene is reactive towards lithium, however, and we have found it very difficult to obtain consistent results. Most often, hexamesitylcyclotrisilane is isolated in very good yield(34). 

Recently, the first disilenes [(/-Bu3Si)2MeSi](X)SiSi(X)[SiMe(Si/-Bu3)] (757, X = C1 758, X = Br) containing halogen atoms at the (formally) r/i2-hybridized Si atoms have been isolated from the reaction of (/-Bu3Si)2MeSiSiX3 (759, X = C1 760, X = Br) with /-Bu3SiNa.790... 

Compounds with a Si=Si or Ge=Ge bond (i.e., disilenes and digermenes) can be isolated when the double bond contains bulky substituents. Only a few cycloaddition reactions with diazo compounds are known, and two reaction modes have been observed. One of the paths leads to the formation of disiliranes 184 (242) and digermiranes 185 (243) (Scheme 8.42), probably by ring contraction of an initially formed [3 + 2] cycloaddition product. The other path involves a 1,1-cycloaddition of the diazoalkane to give disilaaziridine 186 (244) and digermaazir-idine 187 (245). This nitrene-like reactivity is rather uncommon although some intramolecular examples are known (see Section 8.6.1). 

The formation of an intermediate difluorodisilene 25 (equation 8) was proposed by Jutzi and coworkers34 in the reaction of decamethylsilicocene with tetrafluoroboric acid. The disilene which was characterized by the 29Si NMR spectrum, then formed the isolable cyclotetrasilane by [2 + 2] cycloaddition. 

Whereas the analogous carbenes easily isomerize wherever possible to compounds containing doubly bonded carbon atoms even under the conditions of matrix isolation, silylenes are almost as stable as the corresponding substances with doubly bonded silicon atoms. For example, methyl- and silylsilylene lie just 4 and 8 kcalmol-1 above silaethene and disilene, whereas the difference between ethene and methylcarbene is as high as 70 kcalmol-1 149-151 As a consequence, silylenes are often key intermediates on the way to other highly reactive silicon compounds discussed above. 

Some of the reactions given in the sections above are important routes to reactive organosilicon intermediates such as silenes and silylenes, and because of their tendency to dimerize readily, to disilenes, the latter being formed when matrix-isolated silylenes are warmed up. It appears worthwhile to summarize some of the more useful reactions leading to silenes and silylenes, and their subsequent behaviors. The topics of silylenes97,142 and disilenes97,142,143 have recently been reviewed. 

---