Silylene complex

Very recently, the coordination chemistry of low valent silicon ligands has been established as an independent, rapidly expanding research area. With the discovery of stable coordination compounds of silylenes [35-38], a major breakthrough was achieved. Within a short time a variety of stable complexes with a surprising diversity of structural elements was realized. Besides neutral coordination compounds (A, B) [35, 36, 38], and cationic compounds (C) [37], also cyclic bissilylene complexes (D) [39,40] exist. A common feature of the above-mentioned compounds is the coordination of an additional stabilizing base (solvent) to the silicon. However, base-free silylene complexes (A) are also accessible as reactive intermediates at low temperatures. 

Donor free silylene complexes are reactive intermediates in a variety of chemical reactions. In many cases, evidence for the coordinated silylenes involved has been obtained indirectly by means of trapping experiments [49-60]. 

With the stable donor adducts of silylene complexes, valuable model compounds are now available for reactive intermediates which otherwise cannot be observed directly. For example, a side reaction occurring in the hydrosilation process [61 -63], is the dehydrogenative coupling of silanes to disilanes. This reaction could be explained in terms of a silylene transfer reaction with a coordinated silylene as the key intermediate. 

A variety of further reactions are known in which silylenes are transferred to a substrate in the presence of a transition-metal catalyst. In most cases, silylene complexes can now be identified as reactive intermediates. For a detailed discussion refer to Sects. 2.5.3 and 2.5.4. 

Investigations of silicon-metal systems are of fundamental interest, since stable coordination compounds with low valent silicon are still rare [64], and furthermore, silicon transition-metal complexes have a high potential for technical applications. For instance, coordination compounds of Ti, Zr, and Hf are effective catalysts for the polymerization of silanes to oligomeric chain-silanes. The mechanism of this polymerization reaction has not yet been fully elucidated, but silylene complexes as intermediates have been the subject of discussion. Polysilanes find wide use in important applications, e.g., as preceramics [65-67] or as photoresists [68-83],... 

Does a Silylene-Complex exist This rhetorical question is the title of a theoretical paper published in 1983 [84], As a result of an ab-initio calculation, the authors came to the conclusion that a moderately positive answer can be given. However, silylene complexes are thermodynamically less stable than carbene complexes (the MSi bond energy for the hypothetical complex (OC)5Cr = Si(OH)H is 29.6 kcal/mol, the bond energy of the MC bond in (OC)5Cr = C(OH)H is 44.4 kcal/mol) [85], and therefore silylene complexes should be difficult to isolate. 

In 1987 a major breakthrough was achieved when two research groups independently succeeded in the synthesis of monomeric silylene complexes in the form of stable base adducts [35-38]. 

The synthetic approach to silylene complexes (Eq. (2)) is versatile and allows a high variability of both the metals and the substituents at the silicon. A whole series of compounds with bulky substituents like 1 -adamantyloxy, 2-adamantyloxy, neopentyloxy, triphenylmethoxy or f-butylthio could be prepared (Table 1). Compounds with sulfur at silicon are particularly interesting however, their synthesis proved to be very difficult. 

Silylene complexes are not only stable with donor substituents but also with simple alkyl residues at silicon. These alkyl complexes still have a sufficient thermodynamic stability, but otherwise are reactive enough to allow a rich and diverse chemistry. Particularly the chlorocompounds 7 and 11 are valuable starting materials for further functionalization reactions the details of these reactions will be discussed in the forthcoming sections. The data for the known compounds are summarized in Table 1. 

Basically the same methods known from the synthesis of classical metal-silyl complexes can also be applied to the preparation of low valent Si compounds. The procedures given here are summarized with the focus on silylene complexes These are a) reactions of appropriate metal anions with halosilanes, which are the most important methods for the formation of M-Si bonds. Alternatively, silyl... 

An interesting variant of metal-silicon bond formation is the combination of metal halides with silyl anions. Since silyl dianions are not available, only one metal-silicon bond can be formed directly. The silylene complexes are then accessible by subsequent reaction steps [113], An example of this approach is given by the reaction of cis-bistriethylphosphaneplatinumdichloride 25 with diphenylsilylli-thium, which yields, however, only dimeric platinadisilacyclosilanes 26a-c [114]. 

The reaction of (bistrimethylsilyl)phenylsilyllithium with bis(dicyclohexylphos-phino)ethaneplatinumdichloride also does not lead to monomeric silylene complexes but only to the silylplatinum compound 27b [115]. 

Recent investigations have been concerned with the reactivities observed with secondary silanes R2SiH2. In these cases, a dehydrogenative coupling of silanes to disilanes is observed as a side reaction of the hydrosilation. However, the hydrosilation can be totally suppressed if the olefins are omitted. The key intermediate in the coupling reaction has been identified as a silylene complex (sect. 2.5.4). 

The dehydrogenative coupling of silanes does not stop at the stage of disilanes in the coordination sphere of early transition metals like Zr and Hf, but chain polymers of low molecular weight are formed. As reactive intermediates in this reaction, silylene complexes are also assumed. However, alternative mechanisms have been discussed (sect. 2.5.4). 

In a similar way, a set of disilanyl and polysilanyl complexes has recently been synthesized and exposed to photochemical deoligomerization reactions [137]. The photolytically obtained reactive silylene complexes have been identified by trapping experiments [138, 139]. 

The 13C-NMR spectra of 4-7, 9-11 show a close similarity to the spectral data of analogous carbene complexes. The shift differences between the metal carbonyls of the silylene complexes and the related carbon compounds are only small. These results underline the close analogy between the silicon compounds 4-7, 9-11 and Fischer carbene complexes. This view is also supported by the IR spectral data. On the basis of an analysis of the force constants of the vco stretching vibration,... 

Fig. 4. 29Si-NMR data of selected silylene complexes (ref. to table 1)...

Table 3. Mossbauer data of iron silylene complexes (Fe as standard)...

Table 4. Selected structural data of silylene complexes, substituent effects and pyramidaliza-tion at Si [35-38]...

Theoretical Description of Base-Stabilized Silylene Complexes... 

For a theoretical consideration of the metal-silicon interaction in silylene complexes, the fragment orbital description proves to be very useful [148], This approach has been extensively used in the organometallic chemistry of carbon and allows a basic understanding of the interrelations also by means of a qualitative description. 

Fig. 10. HOMO of a d6 CpML2 fragment, which leads to the depicted preferred conformation of a silylene complex...

Investigations of the reactivity of stable silylene complexes are still at an early stage of development. The reactions known so far, however, are of interest, since most of them are model cases which have important mechanistic implications. 

At this stage of the discussion it is obvious that stable donor adducts of silylene complexes show a modified silylene reactivity and can thus be considered as model compounds for otherwise inaccessible reactive intermediates. 

The activation of silylene complexes is induced both photochemically or by addition of a base, e.g. pyridine. A similar base-induced cleavage is known from the chemistry of carbene complexes however, in this case the carbenes so formed dimerize to give alkenes. Finally, a silylene cleavage can also be achieved thermally. Melting of the compounds 4-7 in high vacuum yields the dimeric complexes 48-51 with loss of HMPA. The dimers, on the other hand, can be transformed into polysilanes and iron carbonyl clusters above 120 °C. In all cases, the resulting polymers have been identified by spectroscopic methods. 

Stable silylene complexes with halogen substituents are a useful starting material for further displacement reactions. Starting from 7 and 11, the Si complexes 22-24 are accessible in high yield. However, the intermediate dichlorosilylene complex... 

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