Nickel and palladium silyl pincer complexes: Unusual structural rearrangements that involve reversible Si-C(sp3) and Si-C(sp 2) bond activation

Article abstract of DOI:10.1002/anie.200904570

Feeling the pinch: Remarkably facile SiC(sp³) and Si-C(sp ²) bond cleavage processes occur in [(Cy-PSiP)M(alkyl)] species (M = Ni, Pd; see picture); in the case of Ni, these Si-C bond activation processes are reversible on the NMR timescale in solution. Such examples of metalmediated cleavage of an unstrained SiC(sp³) bond are extremely rare and are unprecedented for Ni.