Silanes silenes

Keywords silaethenes, silanes, silenes, silicon, rearrangements... 

Keywords silanes, silenes, donor-acceptor systems, structure elucidation... 

Matrix IR spectra of various silenes are important analytical features and allow detection of these intermediates in very complex reaction mixtures. Thus, the vibrational frequencies of Me2Si=CH2 were used in the study of the pyrolysis mechanism of allyltrimethylsilane [120] (Mal tsev et al., 1983). It was found that two pathways occur simultaneously for this reaction (Scheme 6). On the one hand, thermal destruction of the silane [120] results in formation of propylene and silene [117] (retroene reaction) on the other hand, homolytic cleavage of the Si—C bond leads to the generation of free allyl and trimethylsilyl radicals. While both the silene [117] and allyl radical [115] were stabilized and detected in the argon matrix, the radical SiMc3 was unstable under the pyrolysis conditions and decomposed to form low-molecular products. 

Nowadays silenes are well-known intermediates. A number of studies have been carried out to obtain more complex molecules having Si=C double bonds. Thus, an attempt has been made to generate and stabilize in a matrix 1,1-dimethyl-l-silabuta-l,3-diene [125], which can be formed as a primary product of pyrolysis of diallyldimethylsilane [126] (Korolev et al., 1985). However, when thermolysis was carried out at 750-800°C the absorptions of only two stable molecules, propene and 1,1-dimethylsilacyclobut-2-ene [127], were observed in the matrix IR spectra of the reaction products. At temperatures above 800°C both silane [126] and silacyclobutene [127] gave low-molecular hydrocarbons, methane, acetylene, ethylene and methylacetylene. A comparison of relative intensities of the IR... 

In contrast to the observed photochemistry of adamantyltris(trimethylsilyl)silane which efficiently yields the appropriate silene compound, similar photolysis of the germanium analogue provided no evidence for the production of germene13. However, photolysis of the germanium compound in CCI4 did result in a Norrish type 1 cleavage of... 

The alcohol 10 looks like it might be formed by the addition of a Grignard reagent to an aldehyde. In fact, Patrick Steel of the University of Durham prepared 10 (Tetrahedron Lett. 44 9135,2003) by Diels-Alder addition of the transient silene derived from 7 to the diene 8. More highly substituted dienes lead to more complex arrays of stereogenic centers. The intermediate silacyclohexenes, exemplified by 9, should also engage in the other reactions of allyl silanes. 

Silathietanes can be readily prepared from the appropriate bis(chloromethyl)silane and KSH or by intramolecular hydrosilation in the presence of Wilkinson s catalyst (Scheme 97) (81JOM(204)13). Electron impact and photoionization mass spectrometry support the loss of silathione ions (R2Si=S) (R = Me, Et) indicating a transannular interaction, though decomposition by the loss of silenes and thioaldehyde also readily occurs (81JOM(214)145). 

All silenes generated so far on the silylcarbene route are reactive intermediates themselves, which were characterized by typical subsequent reactions35 such as isomerization and dimerization or by trapping reactions (see below). However, photolysis of (silyl)diazo compounds in inert matrices at low temperature allowed the isolation and spectroscopic (IR, UV) characterization of several silenes (Scheme 2, Table 3). Irradiation of (dia-zomethyl)silanes 7 at X > 360 nm produced both diazirine 8 and silenes 10, but at shorter wavelength (X > 305 nm) the silenes were produced cleanly from both precursors the... 

A silafulvene (79) was also formed when the 2-diazo-l,2-dihydrosilin 77 was decomposed under copper catalysis (equation 17)49,50. In the presence of ferf-butanol, 79 was trapped as the (terf-butoxy)silane 81. When 77 was decomposed in the presence of ben-zophenone or benzaldehyde, fulvenes 80 were obtained in another reaction typical for silenes. 

Jones and coworkers developed a new method of generating silenes based on the addition-elimination reaction. Addition of t-BuLi to an appropriately substituted chloro(vinyl)silane produces a neopentyl-substituted silene67,68. Among many reactions, it has been shown that the transient silene adds to anthracene to afford stereoisomers, 40a and 40b, as isolable compounds (Scheme 11). Fractional crystallization of the adduct 40 from hexane gave pure 40a, leaving a 69/31 mixture of 40a and 40b. 

In this connection Ishikawa and coworkers studied the photodegradation of poly(disilanylene)phenylenes 203126, and found that irradiation under the same conditions as in the photolysis of the aryldisilanes results in the formation of another type of nonrearranged silene 204 produced together with silane 205 from homolytic scission of a silicon-silicon bond, followed by disproportionation of the resulting silyl radicals 206 to 204 and 205 (equation 51). 

Both silene isomers 278 and 279 are ideal precursors for the generation of silylene 284, since their interconversion to 284 is spontaneous (in the case of 278) or can be easily induced by irradiation (in the case of 279). There are numerous well-established methods to prepare transient silylenes 279. Three important examples are shown in equation 69, namely the photolytic generation from a trisilane 280153, thermolytic or photolytic decomposition of cyclic silanes 28114,154,155 and degradation of diazidosilanes 282153,156. The photolysis of the diazido silane 282 is an especially clean reaction which has been used in several spectroscopic studies157. The photolysis of w-diazo compounds 283 is the only frequently used reaction path to silenes 284 via a carbene-silene rearrangement8. 

From that value a force constant of k = 5.6 mdynA 1 for the Si=C double bond is deduced255. This frequency is clearly higher than the usual range for Si—C stretch vibrations but substantially less than for C=C stretches, both because Si is heavier than C and because the Si=C bond is weaker than the C=C bond. More suitable for the experimental characterization is the vinylic Si—H stretch vibration which gives rise to a medium band at 2239 cm-1 (25) or 2187 cm-1 (2)29, hypsochromically shifted by around 100 cm-1 relative to the Si—H stretch in simple silanes. A detailed analysis of the vibrational spectra of matrix-isolated MeHSi=CH2 26 using polarized IR spectroscopy established IR transition moment directions relative to the tot -transition moment (Si-C axis) in 26156. These data provide detailed information about the vibrational modes and about the structure of 26156. The bathochromic shift of the Si=C stretch in the isomeric 1,3-silabuta-l,3-dienes 289 and 290 by around 70 cm 1 compared with the Si=C stretch in simple silenes (Table 15), was interpreted as an indication of Si=C—C=C and C=Si—C=C 7r-conjugation159. 

A third photochemical access to silylenes, beside the isomerization of silenes and the photolysis of tri- or cyclopolysilanes, is the irradiation of geminal diazidosilanes, which under nitrogen loss often gives the corresponding divalent silicon species. However, silan-imines are frequent by-products164 or in some cases even the only products (Section IV). 

The much studied photochemistry of aryldisilanes carried out in earlier years has been reviewed51,52. Cleavage of the silicon-silicon bond of the disilyl moiety is always involved, but various other reactions have been observed depending on the structure of the disilane and the conditions employed. Thus cleavage to a pair of silyl radicals, path a of Scheme 15, is normally observed, and their subsequent disproportionation to a silene and silane, path b, is often observed. There is evidence that the formation of this latter pair of compounds may also occur by a concerted process directly from the photoex-cited aryldisilane (path c). Probably the most common photoreaction is a 1,3-silyl shift onto the aromatic ring to form a silatriene, 105, path d, which may proceed via radical recombination52. A very minor process, observed occasionally, is the extrusion of a silylene from the molecule (path e), as shown in Scheme 15. 

Conlin and coworkers photolyzed vinyltris(trimethylsilyl)silane 188 in the presence of a variety of trapping reagents such as butadiene, substituted butadienes or silanes and observed products derived from intermediate silenes 189 (formed by rearrangement) or from silylenes 190 resulting from elimination of hexamethyldisilane93. In some cases complex mixtures of products which could have been derived from intermediate silyl radicals were also observed. The reaction products formed from the silene and the silylene in the presence of butadiene, 191 and 192 respectively, are shown in Scheme 32. 

Cycloaddition reactions of acyl silanes appear to be rare, but Brook has shown that a-silyloxy bis(trimethylsilyl)silenes (52), generated photochemically from acyl tris(trimethylsilyl)silanes (vide infra, Section IV.A.4), undergo [2 + 2] and [4 + 2] cycloaddition reactions with ketones, and [4 + 2] cycloaddition reactions with less bulky acyl silanes, as illustrated in Scheme 8717,24 26 72 73,201. They do not, however, react with their parent acyl tris(trimethylsilyl)silanes. 

An extensive theoretical investigation does not exist for the siloles, but PM3 calculations of formation enthalpies of 2 and its tautomers have indicated that the l//-silole is the most thermodynamically stable species200. The activation barrier for 11 — 2 isomerization was calculated to be 96 kJ moC1, comparable to that for cyclopentadiene2d 116. The (1H + 1H) dimer 1019 is isolated rather than the (2H + 1H) dimer as in the case of phosphole. This directly confirms the thermodynamic stability and the Diels-Alder kinetic instability of 2. The marked difference in the stability of the parent silole and phosphole was explained3 by the relative stabilities of the a bonds in silanes and phosphines (Si > P) and of the ji bonds in silenes and phosphenes (P > Si)117. 

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