Wiberg silenes, reactions

It was also well established that silenes could take part as the dienophile in Diels-Alder reactions. In many cases, particularly with unsymmetric dienes such as isoprene, the reactions were not clean because, in addition to formation of the [2+4] cycloadduct 61, the possibility exists for the formation of it regioisomer 62, products of an ene reaction 63, and conceivably the [2+2] cycloaddition product 64, as shown in Eq. (23). Wiberg... 

Two comprehensive studies of the reactions of Wiberg type and of the Jones-Auner type silenes with dienes will be described immediately below, without separating the results into the separate subsections of [2 + 4], [2 + 2], and ene reactions. The overall results of their investigations, given in one location, will allow a better, appreciation of the effects that the substituents on the silene or diene have in determining which reaction takes place. 

The reactions with quadricyclane, shown in Eq. (31), gave products identical to those formed by the same silene reacting in a [2 + 2] manner with norbornene. Mixtures of exo endo isomers were frequently observed. Again, only silenes of the Auner type have been studied with this reagent,51-53,185,188 so it is not known whether the Wiberg- or Brook-type silenes will undergo this mode of cycloaddition. 

Wiberg has described the reactions of the silene Me2Si=C(SiMe3)2 with a wide variety of reagents and has reported on their relative rates of reaction (see Table VIII).98 174 Some silenes will add chlorogermanes and chlorostannanes174 as well as reactive organic halides such as chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, and benzyl chloride. 

A somewhat milder route which appears to be devoid of the complications of isomerization is the retro-Diels-Alder reaction of bicyclo [2.2.2] octadienes, frequently substituted with aryl groups (5,30,53,65), [Eq. (2)], and recently Wiberg (88,90) described a very mild route involving both [2 + 2] and [2 + 4] cycloreversions which occur at 60°C to generate Me2Si=C(SiMe3)2. However, the generality of this latter source of silenes has not been established yet [Eq. (3)]. 

The Wiberg -type silenes like 92, available through salt elimination reactions from 93, react with nonenolisable aldehydes, ketones and the corresponding imino derivatives to give in a first step donor adducts 9459, which are then transformed to the [2 + 2] and [2 + 4] cycloadducts 95 and 96, respectively (equation 21)60-62. These cycloadducts may liberate the silene 92 upon heating and it can be trapped by suitable reagents. 

Recently, Wiberg and coworkers have answered the question whether the formation reaction for silenes of the type 126 can be analogously extended for silene types 127 and 12878. 

The facile photochemical sigmatropic 1,3-trimethylsilyl shift in polysilylacylsilanes from silicon to oxygen (equation 33) was utilized historically to prepare the first relatively stable silenes3 86 87. Silenes prepared by isomerization of acylpolysilanes bear, due to the synthetic approach, a trimethylsiloxy group at the sp2-hybridized carbon and relatively stable silenes of this type have in addition also at least one trimethylsilyl group at the silicon. These substituents strongly influence the physical properties and the chemical behaviour of these silenes. This is noticeable in many reactions in which these Brook -type silenes behave differently from simple silenes or silenes of the Wiberg type. 

Wiberg determined the relative rates of addition of various alcohols and amines to silene 6, the results of which have been summarized above in Table 26. The fastest rates of addition were observed with aliphatic alcohols and amines, leading to the hypothesis that the first step of the reaction involves complexation of the neutral nucleophile at silicon, followed by proton transfer to the silenic carbon. Subsequent reports of the X-ray crystal... 

Wiberg and coworkers published relative rate constants and the products of reaction of silene 6 with a number of alkenes and dienes in ether solution at 100 °C6 106-108. These data are listed in Table 2 along with an indication of the type of product formed in each case. As is the norm in Diels-Alder additions by more conventional dienophiles, the rate of [2 + 4]-cycloaddition of 6 to dienes increases with sequential methyl substitution in the 2- and 3-positions of the diene, as is illustrated by the data for 2,3-dimethyl-1,3-butadiene (DMB), isoprene and 1,3-butadiene. The well-known effects of methyl substitution at the 1- and 4-positions of the diene in conventional Diels-Alder chemistry are also reflected with 6 as the dienophile. For example, lruns-1,3-pen tadiene reacts significantly faster than the f/.v-isorrier, an effect that has been attributed to steric destabilization of the transition state for [2 + 4]-cycloaddition. In fact, the reaction of c/s-l,3-pentadiene with 6 yields silacyclobutane adducts, while the trans-diene reacts by [2 + 4]-cycloaddition108. No detectable reaction occurs with 2,5-dimethyl-2,4-hexadiene. The reaction of 6 with isoprene occurs regioselectively to yield adducts 65a and 65b in the ratio 65a 65b = 8.5 (equation 50)106,107. 

The complex reaction sequence shown in equation 34 might provide some rationalization. The formation of the silylcarbene 141 is suggested, based on experimental results from related reactions , but there is no evidence for the formation of 141 nor for a silylene intermediate. Thus, the transformation 137 142 might proceed via a dyotropic rearrangement as well. The facile 1,3-methyl shift in 2-trimethylsilylsilenes which interconverts 142 139 is well known from Wiberg -type silenes . 139 (R = i-Bu) is stable in solution at room temperature over days and isomerizes only slowly to 140 (R = t-Bu) which rapidly dimerizes giving a 1,3-disilacyclobutane . 

---