Silicon species

The silyl group directs electrophiles to the substituted position. That is, it is an ipso-directing group. Because of the polarity of the carbon-silicon bond, the substituted position is relatively electron-rich. The ability of silicon substituents to stabilize carboca-tion character at )9-carbon atoms (see Section 6.10, p. 393) also promotes ipso substitution. The silicon substituent is easily removed from the c-complex by reaction with a nucleophile. The desilylation step probably occurs through a pentavalent silicon species ... 

Whether the formation of alkene 3 proceeds directly from alkoxide 4 or via a penta-coordinated silicon-species 6, is not rigorously known. In certain cases—e.g. for /3-hydroxydisilanes (R = SiMes) that were investigated by Hrudlik et al —the experimental findings suggest that formation of the carbon-carbon bond is synchronous to formation of the silicon-oxygen bond ... 

On the other hand, the fluorine-induced addition of the diastereomeric silyl-subsliluted sulfides 36 A and 36B to benzaldehyde proceeds without loss of stereochemical information and with retention of configuration32. Since, however, the anionic reagent 35A/35B is known to be configurationally labile, the observed retention of configuration in the fluorine-induced desi-lylative hydroxy alkylation lends experimental evidence to the notion that these reactions proceed via hypervalent silicon species rather than anionic reagents. 

The first stable silaallene, 56, was synthesized in 1993 " " by the intramolecular attack of an organolithium reagent at the /f-carbon of a fluoroalkynylsilane (Scheme 16). Addition of two equivalents of r-butyllithium in toluene at O C to compound 54 gave intermediate 55. The a-lithiofluorosilane then eliminated lithium fluoride at room temperature to form the 1-silaallene 56, which was so sterically hindered that it did not react with ethanol even at reflux temperatures. 1-Silaallene 56 was the first, and so far the only, multiply bonded silicon species to be unreactive toward air and water. The X-ray crystal structure and NMR spectra of 56 is discussed in Sect. IVA. 

Mobility of Silyl Croups and the Importance of Hypervalent Silicon Species... 

Because fully polymerized silicon species are more stable with respect to hydrolysis than weakly polymerized ones (24-36 ), the effect of restructuring at short length scales is manifested as the maximization of Q4 species at the expense of QJ-Q3 species. (Note In Q terminology, the superscript denotes the number of bridging oxygens (-0-Si) to which the silicon nucleus is bonded.) Conversely, under conditions where restructuring is inhibited, the pattern of condensation is more random in solution and less fully polymerized species are retained in the final gel. 

Figure 8 shows the 9si MASS and H cross polarization (CP MASS) spectra obtained on heated samples and 29Si MASS spectra collected after exposure of the 600 and 1100°C samples to water vapor. (Brinker, C. J., Kirkpatrick, R. J., Tallant, D. R., Bunker, B. C. and Montez, B., submitted.) The three prominent peaks at chemical shifts (6) of about -91, -101, and -110 ppm correspond to Q2, Q3, and Q4 silicon sites, respectively (44). The relative intensities of these peaks in the MASS spectra are proportional to the relative concentrations of the different silicon species. The positions of these peaks in both the MASS and CP MASS spectra are correlated with the average Si-O-Si bond angle, ij>, for bridging oxygens bound to the... 

Tetravalent silicon is the only structural feature in all silicon sources in nature, e.g. the silicates and silica even elemental silicon exhibits tetravalency. Tetravalent silicon is considered to be an ana-logon to its group 14 homologue carbon and in fact there are a lot of similarities in the chemistry of both elements. Furthermore, silicon is tetravalent in all industrially used compounds, e.g. silanes, polymers, ceramics, and fumed silica. Also the reactions of subvalent and / or low coordinated silicon compounds normally lead back to tetravalent silicon species. It is therefore not surprising that more than 90% of the relevant literature deals with tetravalent silicon. The following examples illustrate why "ordinary" tetravalent silicon is still an attractive field for research activities Simple and small tetravalent silicon compounds - sometimes very difficult to synthesize - are used by theoreticians and preparative chemists as model compounds for a deeper insight into structural features and the study of the reactivity influenced by different substituents on the silicon center. As an example for industrial applications, the chemical vapor decomposition (CVD) of appropriate silicon precursors to produce thin ceramic coatings on various substrates may be mentioned. 

Hexacoordinated silicon takes benefit from the favorable octahedral arrangement of ligands around a coordination center. As expected, negatively charged substituents are superior in stabilizing high silicon coordination numbers. Most recently however, compounds with chelate ligands, mono anionic derivatives and compounds with more electropositive donors have been added to the series of penta- and hexacoordinated silicon species. 

The reactivity of hexacoordinated silicon species themselves has been considered [7, 8] when we have tried to find a way to obtain organosilanes directly from silica. There is a challenge for chemistry to find a way to obtain silanes avoiding the route through silicon metal, (Scheme 4). 

We have solved this problem taking into account previous German work [9] which describes the preparation of hexacoordinated silicon species directly by reaction of silica with catechol in presence of ammonia. 

The second step is now the study of the reactivity of these hexacoordinated silicon species towards nucleophiles in order to obtain Si-C or SiH bond formation. The nucleophilic attack takes place at silicon with displacement of catechol and formation of organosilanes. 

So far only a few examples of the uses of organosilicon compounds in cross-couplings have been published. Noteworthy is the smooth reaction with a sterically hindered substrate (87).295 The synthesis of the alkaloid nitidine included a cross-coupling step using an alkenylsilane (88),296 while the syntheses of some antitumor agents involved the alkenylation of unprotected iodouracyls using alkenyl-silicon species.297... 

Open-chain alkanes, alkyl halide reduction, 29-31 Organosilicon hydrides bond strengths, 5-6 hypervalent silicon species, 9-11 ionic hydrogenation, 5 trivalent silicon species, 7-9 Orthoesters, reduction of, 97-99 Oxime reduction, 102... 

Trivalent silicon species, organosilicon hydride reductions, 7-9... 

Various approaches to the analysis of dissolved silicon have been tried. Most of them are based on the formation of /J-molybdosilic acid [ 199-203 ]. Dissolved silicon exists in seawater almost entirely as undissociated orthosilicic acid. This form and its dimer, termed reactive silicate , combine with molybdosilicic acid to form a- and /I-molybdosilicic acid [180]. The molybdosilicic acid can be reduced to molybdenum blue, which is determined photometrically [206]. The photometric determination of silicate as molybdenum blue is sufficiently sensitive for most seawater samples. It is amenable to automated analysis by segmented continuous flow analysers [206-208]. Most recent analyses of silicate in seawater have, therefore, used this chemistry. Furthermore, reactive silicate is probably the only silicon species in seawater that can be used by siliceous organisms [204]. 

The initial photochemical step in almost all of the reactions described in this chapter is formation of either trivalent radicals of the type R3E-, or else the divalent analogues of carbenes, R2E . Such species are obviously very reactive, and are only observed as intermediates or in experiments in the presence of trapping agents. The relative stability of the intermediates depends greatly on the nature of the substituents R, and this can influence the type of reaction products ultimately formed. Where appropriate, comparisons with the behaviour of the analogous silicon species are made. 

S-37 (see above) it is also possible to prepare and to matrix-isolate the silicon species 124, 125, and 126, which again exist in a photoequilibrium. Our first entry to 1-silacyclopropenylidene (124) was the pulsed flash pyrolysis of 2-ethynyl-l,l,l-trimethyldisilane (123).71,72 Even though the structure of educt molecule 123 suggests formation of ethynylsilylene (125), the isolated product was 124. Obviously 125 had already thermally isomerized to the most stable isomer 124 before the products were condensed at 10 K. 

The chemistry of hypercoordinated silicon compounds has continued to be an extremely active research field in recent years. Some of this interest is driven by the observation that many hypercoordinated silicon species possess a... 

It is an intriguing idea to stabilize low-valent silicon species, such as silyl cations, silylenes, silenes, and disilenes using intramolecularly coordinating ligands. Corriu et al. succeeded in the preparation of the first hypervalent silyl cation [(8-Me2NCioH6)2SiH]+l/2[l8]z 782 by the reaction of the hexacoordinated diorganosilane... 

The broad emission and low-fluorescence quantum yield of PPS suggested a distribution of trapping sites in the Si skeleton, which were also considered responsible for the lower-than-expected conductivity. The far-IR spectrum of PPS suggested the existence of cyclohexasilane rings connected by linear chains.361,362 Subsequent investigations by Irie et al. on the electronic absorption spectra of radical ions of poly(alkylsilyne)s were taken to indicate the presence of various cyclic silicon species, in corroboration of this conclusion.363 The large Stokes shift and broadness of the fluorescence emission indicate a range of fluorophore structures, different from the chromophore structures. This is... 

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