Silylenes structure

The chapter table of contents contains subjects that were either unknown or merely distant hopes a decade ago, such as persistent silylenes, the dissociation of disilenes to silylenes and terminal silylene-transition metal complexes. The kinetics and spectroscopy of silylenes and theoretical treatments of silylene structure and reactivity have made such gigantic strides in the intervening years that they represent new vistas in our understanding. 

The relative high stabilities of the pyramidal, bridged and silylenic structures in the case of SisHs result from several electronic effects typical of silicon, which were already discussed in detail in this review, such as the reluctance to form multiple bonds, high divalent state stabilization, preference for bridged bonding etc. These effects lead in the case of Si5H5+, as in many other examples discussed in this chapter, to stable three-dimensional structures which are not minima on the PES of the analogous carbon compounds. 

In the vast majority of its compounds Si is tetrahedrally coordinated but sixfold coordination also occurs, and occasional examples of other coordination geometries are known as indicated in Table 9.2 (p. 335). Unstable 2-coordinate Si has been known for many years but in 1994 the stable, colourless, crystalline silylene [ SiNBu CH=CHNBu j, structure (1), p. 336, was... 

For copolymers of structure I, for both types of side-chains, there is a striking similarity with the optical properties of the corresponding models the absorption and photoluminescence maxima of the polymers arc only 0.08-0.09 eV red-shifted relative to those of the models, as shown in Figure 16-9 (left) for the octyloxy-substituted compounds. The small shift can be readily explained by the fact that in the copolymers the chromophorcs are actually substituted by silylene units, which have a weakly electron-donating character. The shifts between absorption and luminescence maxima are exactly the same for polymers and models and the width of the emission bands is almost identical. The quantum yields are only slightly reduced in the polymers. These results confirm that the active chro-mophores are the PPV-type blocks and that the silylene unit is an efficient re-conjugation interrupter. 

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. 

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

Bimetallic silylene-bridged complexes have been known for a long time and numerous articles related to this subject have appeared. Several compounds have been characterized, some of them also by x-ray structure analysis [165-171], For instance, the complex Mn2(CO)8(Si(C6H5)2)2 shows a distorted (MnSi)2 four-membered ring with a Mn-Mn bond [169], In the following section selected examples which have been described recently or are of particular interest in the present context will be discussed. 

Starting from (OC)5MnSiR2H (R = Me, Ph, Cl), the p-silylene complex 70 is accessible via the oxidative addition of the Si —H bond to Pt(C2H4.)(PPh3)2 and Pt(PPh3)4, respectively. Structure 70 can be functionalized by displacement of the phosphine ligands alcoholysis and hydrolysis of the compound 70 leads to silicon-free complexes [175]. 

Using CO-saturated hydrocarbon matrices, Pearsall and West" photolyzed sily-lene precursors at 77 K and monitored CO coordination to the silylenes by UV-vis spectroscopy (Scheme 13). Bis(trimethylsilyl)silanes 44a-c or SifiMcji were irradiated at 254 nm to create silylenes 45a-d, which reacted with CO, causing new peaks to ca. 290 and 350 nm, which were attributed to complex 46a-d, a resonance structure of silaketene 47a-d. Silylene adducts form fairly weak bonds, as seen by warming of the matrices. In the case of silylene adducts where one R = Mes, the CO dissociates and the corresponding disilene 48a-c peaks in the UV-vis spectra observed upon warming (R2 = Me most likely produced silane rings Si, Me6. etc.). 

Maier and co-workers condensed formaldehyde and elemental silicon at 12 K in an argon matrix and photolyzed the mixture to form silaketene H2SiCO, which is similar in structure to the silylene-CO adduct mentioned above. The reactants first form siloxiranylidene 49 (which equilibrates with an unknown species postulated as the planar/linear silaketene 50 when exposed to 313-nm-wavelength light) and then forms complex 51 when photolyzed at 366 nm (Scheme 15). This species could also be formed by photolyzing diazidosilane 52 in the presence of CO, and complex 51 equilibrates with SiCO (53) and H2. The CO infrared shift for this bent structure was calculated at 2129 cm , which is shifted —80cm from the calculated value of free CO, at 2210 cm. The experimentally observed value was reported at 2038-2047 cm at 12 K. 

The stability of molecules depends in the first place on limiting conditions. Small, mostly triatomic silylenes and germylenes have been synthesized successfully at high temperatures and low pressures, 718). Their reactions can be studied by warming up the frozen cocondensates with an appropriate reactant, whereas their structures are determined by matrix techniques 17,18). In addition, reactions in the gas phase or electron diffraction are valuable tools for elucidating the structures and properties of these compounds. In synthetic chemistry, adequate precursors are often used to produce intermediates which spontaneously react with trapping reagents 7). The analysis of the products is then utilized to define more accurately the structure of the intermediate. 

The chemistry of unsaturated silicon compounds, i.e. silylenes and molecules having (p-p)ic-sili-con element multiple bonds >Si=E (E = C, Si, Ge, Sn, N, P, As, O, S), is an interesting field of research for the theoretician as well as for the preparative chemist because of the unexpected and fascinating results which can be obtained. Yet 30 years ago, such compounds were considered "non existent" because of the classical "double bond rule", established by Pitzer and Mulliken in the early fifties. Since then, the chemistry of unsaturated silicon compounds proceeded from the investigation of small" species in the gas phase to the synthesis and isolation of stable species with bulky substituents at the > Si =E moiety, and to the determination of their structural features. 

Despite the differing levels of calculations, the same general conclusions were reached. The silicon-carbon double bonds in 1-silaallene (1.69 A) and 2-silaallene (1.70 A) are shorter than in isolated silenes at the same level of theory. This trend is also observed in the analogous carbon series. 1-Silaallene is thermodynamically more stable than 2-silaallene by 21 kcal/mol (22). Intuitively, this is what would have been expected, realizing the low ability of silicon to participate in multiple bonds. As may be expected from simpler systems (i.e., H2Si=CH2)(i97), silylene isomers (for example, structures 8 and 9) are considerably more stable (approximately IS kcal/mol) than their silaallene counterparts. 

From this result it has been concluded that the reactive intermediate is an insertion product with a structure similar to that of the nickel compound 34 and not a silylene complex as postulated in an earlier publication.36 The molecular structures of 34 and 35 are presented in Fig. 6. 

The photochemical cleavage of Si-Si bonds of cyclotetrasilanes has been reported to generate several reactive intermediates. For example, Nagai and co-workers reported that silylene and cyclotrisilane are generated during the photolysis of a cyclotetrasilane with a folded structure.73 Shizuka, Nagai, West, and co-workers reported that the photolysis of planar cyclotetrasilanes gives two molecules of disilene.74... 

---