Isomerism silylenes

Conlin148 also studied the pyrolysis of 1-methyl-1-silacyclobutane in the presence of excess butadiene at various temperatures where the decomposition followed first-order kinetics and where the silene isomerized to the isomeric silylene prior to reacting with the butadiene. The value for the preexponential factor A for the silene-to-silylene isomerization was found to be 9.6 0.2 s-1 and the Ewl for the isomerization was 30.4 kcal mol-1 with A// = 28.9 0.7 kcal mol-1 and AS = -18.5 0.9 cal mol-1 deg. More recently, the photochemical ring opening of l,l-dimethyl-2-phenylcyclobut-3-ene and its recyclization was studied. The Eact for cycli-zation was 9.4 kcal mol-1.113... 

A much explored pathway to simple silenes involves the thermolysis of silacyclobutanes at 400-700°C, the original Gusel nikov-Flowers (155) route. Such temperatures are not readily conducive to the isolation and study of reactive species such as silenes except under special conditions, and flash thermolysis, or low pressure thermolysis, coupled with use of liquid nitrogen or argon traps has frequently been employed if study of the physical properties is desired. Under these high temperature conditions rearrangements of simple silenes to the isomeric silylenes have been observed which can lead to complications in the interpretation of results (53,65). Occasionally phenyl-substituted silacyclobutanes have been photolyzed at 254 nm to yield silenes (113) as has dimethylsilacyclobutane in the vapor phase (147 nm) (162). 

The relative stability of the three silapyridines 42-44 follows the order (kcalmol-1) 42 (0.0, most stable) > 44 (11.0) > 43 (37.8), but no explanation was given for this stability order68. The thermodynamic stability of v-1,3,5-trisilatriazinc, 41, and of the silapyridines 42-44 relative to their isomeric silylenes is discussed in Section V.B.I. 

Summary The matrix-spectroscopic identification and photochemical interconversion of the isomeric silylenes 3-5, and silacyclopropyne (6) are of interest in many ways. For one, their isolation serves to illustrate the potential of matrix isolation spectroscopy. In addition, the structural assignments for these species are based on the comparison of the experimentally observed and calculated IR spectra and therefore emphasize the importance of simultaneously applying quantum chemical calculations and spectroscopic measurements. Moreover, practically no examples exist for this class of silylene rearrangements. Lastly, the C2H2Si isomers eventually play a decisive role in the chemistry of interstellar clouds. 

Schaefer20 pointed out three major disparities between theory and experiment regarding the C=Si bond. The first concerns the C=Si bond length, the second concerns the isomerization barrier for its rearrangement to the corresponding silylene and the third is the question of the relative stabilities of 40 and of the isomeric silylene H iCH3. Let us discuss first the problem of the geometry. 

Following an earlier qualitative prediction that para-disilabenzene 93 and the corresponding Dewar structure 94 should be close in energy245, Chandrasekhar and Schleyer250 studied this system using the 3-21G( V/STO-3G level of theory. In addition to 94 the isomeric silylenes 95 and 96 were also studied. 

In contrast to diazido compounds [102] and [104], which throw off two azido groups and form silylene and germylene, photodecomposition of silyl azide [105] led to the generation of aminosilylene [107] via isomerization of initially formed nitrene [106] (Maier et al., 1989b). The IR spectrum of the... 

For R = H the silole 51 had a at 278 nm while the silylene 48 absorbed at 250 and 480 nm. The isomeric silenes 49 and 50 absorbed at 2% and 270 nm, respectively. The UV absorptions for these species have been calculated and assigned, and their IR spectra have also been obtained. When R = Me, there was little change in the A.max, the four species absorbing at 280, 255 and 480, 312, and 274 nm, respectively. 

More recently, a new mode of cis-trans isomerization of a disilene has been suggested for the extremely hindered disilene 27. As will be detailed in Section VIII. B, 27 undergoes thermal dissociation into the corresponding silylenes. Monitoring the thermolysis of (Z)-27 at 50°C by H and 29Si NMR reveals a competitive formation of the isomerized ( >27 and benzosilacyclobutene 37, which is most likely formed by intramolecular insertion of silylene 36 into the C—H bond of the o-bis(trimethylsilyl)-methyl group (Scheme 3).22,59 This suggests the possible occurrence of cis-trans isomerization via a dissociation-association mechanism. 

In accord with the proposed mechanism, copyrolyses of la or lb with 2,3-dimethyl-1,3-butadiene (DMB) or isoprene lead to silacyclopentene derivatives via a formal [4+1] cycloaddition of the silylenes (Scheme 2). The simultaneous existence of the silaethenes 2a/2b and the resulting silylenes 4a/4b in the gas phase is proven by the formation of the corresponding 1,3-disilacyclobutanes (5) and - in case of isoprene as the quenching partner - of the two isomeric silacyclohexenes 7 (Scheme 2) [2]. 

Two indirect routes to silenes, one derived from silylenes and the other from silylcarbenes, are of some generality and importance. Silylenes (e.g., Me3Si—Si—<]) (53) have been derived from the thermolysis of either methoxy or chloro polysilyl compounds. Thermolysis resulted in the elimination of trimethylmethoxy- or trimethylchlorosilane and yielded the silylene, which, based on products of trapping, clearly had rearranged in part to the isomeric silene [Eq. (5)]. Alternatively the silylene Me2Si has... 

We theoretically studied the reactions of stable West silylenes 32 and 73 with phosphorus ylide H2C=PMe3.74 Similarly to the simplest analogs of carbenes, these compounds can form betaines in which the negative charge is localized on the silicon atom and the positive charge is localized on the phosphorus atom. These betaines can thermally decompose to form silenes (direction A, Scheme 39) or be isomerized to ylides via direction B. 

Rearrangements of disilanes to a-silylsilenes are well established and are involved in the exchange of substituents between a silylene center and the adjacent silicon.Pulsed flash pyrolysis of acetylenic disilane (41) gave rise to the acetylenic silene (42), which subsequently rearranged to the cyclic silylene, 1-silacyclopropenylidene (43). Irradiation of the cyclic silylene resulted in the isomerization to the isomeric 42, which itself could be photochemically converted into the allenic silylene (44). Both 42 and 43 also were reported to isomerize on photolysis to the unusual (45), which was characterized spectroscopically (Scheme 14.24). 

The reactions of silylenes with 1,3-dienes giving the corresponding 3-silolenes are typical of the cycloaddition reactions of silylenes. The mechanism of these reactions has been investigated in detail, " " and it has been proposed that the reactions of silylenes with 1,3-dienes proceed via initial [1 + 2] addition followed by the isomerization of the resulting 2-vinylsiliranes to the corresponding 3-silolenes. However, the observation and isolation of the intermediary 2-vinylsiliranes has been limited to only a few examples because vinylsiliranes readily isomerize... 

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