Group 14 elements reactivities

Our ideas on main-group element reactivity are not taken out of the blue but are based on parallels with well-studied processes in organic and organoelement chemistry. Second, it no longer necessarily takes a prohibitive amount of resources to test a mechanistic proposal, at least in a preliminary way. Quantum chemical calculations, particularly based on density functional theory (DFT), very often provide an efficient and economical way of evaluating reaction mechanisms. Third, and perhaps most important, it s vastly better to be able to... 

Double bonding between the heavier main-group elements from reactive intermediates to isolable molecules. A. H. Cowley, Polyhedron, 1984, 3, 389-432 (116). 

The usefulness of the main-group elements in materials is related to their properties, which can be predicted from periodic trends. For example, an s-block element has a low ionization energy, which means that its outermost electrons can easily be lost. An s-block element is therefore likely to be a reactive metal with all the characteristics that the name metal implies (Table 1.4, Fig. 1.60). Because ionization energies are... 

Low-coordinate species of the main group elements of the second row such as carbenes, olefins, carbonyl compounds (ketones, aldehydes, esters, amides, etc.), aromatic compounds, and azo compounds play very important roles in organic chemistry. Although extensive studies have been devoted to these species not only from the physical organic point of view but also from the standpoints of synthetic chemistry and materials science, the heavier element homologues of these low-coordinate species have been postulated in many reactions only as reactive intermediates, and their chemistry has been undeveloped most probably due to... 

Remarkable progress in the chemistry of main group elements enabled us to synthesize and isolate heavy ketones which are capable of existence as stable species if their highly reactive M=X bond is adequately protected toward dimerization... 

Double-bond compounds containing heavier main group elements are highly reactive to undergo ready addition reactions with various reagents. 

The 13th group elements remarks about their general chemical properties and reactivity... 

Ge=P —, >Ge = 0, >Ge=S (Se, Te), and >Ge=C=X. In every chapter we will describe the new routes to such doubly bonded derivatives, their physical data together with theoretical calculations, and their reactivity. Only the doubly bonded compounds between germanium and main group elements are described. Thus, the derivatives in which the germanium is multiply bonded to a transition metal are not reported here. 

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