Disilenes transient species

Knowledge concerning the photochemistry of silenes, silylenes or disilenes is somewhat limited, largely because they are usually reactive transient species difficult to handle. However, a number of interesting and important observations have been made which are reported below. 

Cycloaddition reactions of transient or isolable disilenes with heterocumulenes such as CX2 (X = S, Se) produce heterocyclic carbenes, for example, carbene 59, which has a disilane backbone. These carbenes are only transient species and were not isolated but were either trapped with C6o. or dimerization of the carbenes occurred to give the tetrathiafulvalene or tetraselenafulvalene analogues 28 <2002CEJ2730, 2005AGE7567>. 

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. 

As stated before, there is little knowledge on the unsymmetrically substituted stable disilenes because stable disilenes are usually prepared by dimerization of silylenes, thus leading to symmetrical disilenes. Unsymmetrically substituted disilenes are produced mostly as transient species (see the preceding section), and it was found that ( )- and (Z)-l,2-dimethyl-l,2-diphenyldisilenes undergo the addition reaction with alcohols very rapidly (k2 = 10 -10 s ). The rates are only 1 to 2 orders of magnitude smaller... 

Figure 8.2b corresponds to the superimposition of signals from at least two persistent paramagnetic species. The nature of these species is still unclear even if the g factors are consistent only with silyl radicals carrying three silyl groups as in 6. Mechanistic schemes for their formation could be suggested based on the addition of transient silyl radicals to the transient disilenes generated photolytically [14]. 

Because of the close relationship between silicon and carbon, many attempts have been made to try to synthesize species containing multiple bonds to silicon (Si=C, Si=0, Si=Si, etc.). However, it was not until 1967 that compelling evidence was presented that Si=C might exist in the thermal reaction of 1,1-dimethyl-1-silacyclobutane (equation 90). The first evidence for the existence of Si=Si as transient intermediate was provided in the thermolysis of bridged disilane derivatives (equation 91). Since then, many studies have been published on these unsaturated species, but it was in 1981 that synthesis and characterization of relatively stable crystalline compounds containing Si=C (silene) (equation 92) and Si=Si (disilene) (equation 85) were reported (equations 90-92). 

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