Organometallics 2003, 22, 4869-4872
4869
Syn th esis, Sp ectr oscop ic Ch a r a cter istics, a n d Cr ysta l
Str u ctu r e of µ-Dip h en ylsilylen e(d eca ca r bon yl)d itu n gsten
Com p lex (µ-SiP h 2)W2(CO)10
Agnieszka Ga¸dek, Andrzej Kochel, and Teresa Szyman´ska-Buzar*
Faculty of Chemistry, University of Wrocław, 14 F. J oliot-Curie, 50-383 Wrocław, Poland
Received J uly 1, 2003
Photolysis of W(CO)6 in the presence of Ph2SiH2 in n-heptane leads to the formation of
the first µ-silyleneditungsten complex (µ-SiPh2)W2(CO)10. The molecular structure of the
new silylene compound was established by single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies and
1
characterized by IR and H, 13C{1H}, and 29Si{1H} NMR spectroscopy. In CDCl3 solution
the silylene compound reacts with bicyclo[2.2.1]hept-2-ene to give W(CO)5(η2-C7H10) and 1,3-
cyclopentylenevinylene.
In tr od u ction
and may be considered a very important task for silicon
and organometallic chemists.
Over the past few years there have been numerous
reports concerning the preparation and structure of
transition metal complexes containing silylene ligands
SiR2.1 These compounds can be regarded as analogues
of very well-known carbene complexes.2 However, in
contrast to the well-established chemistry of transition
metal carbene complexes,2 the chemical properties of the
analogous silylene complexes remains practically un-
revealed.1 On the other hand, silylene complexes were
proposed as key intermediates in many transition
metal-catalyzed rearrangements of silicon compounds,
including dehydrogenative coupling of dihydrosilanes,3
redestribution of silanes,4 and various reactions of
silylene transfer to olefins and acetylenes.5 Therefore,
systematic investigations of transition metal silylene
complexes and their chemistry appeared to be necessary
Several methods have been employed to prepare
silylene complexes.1 The first silylene complexes were
observed in reaction between disilanes and metal car-
bonyls: Ru3(CO)12 and Os3(CO)12.6a Next, the extrusion
of SiMe2 from the disilanes HMe2Si-SiMe2R (R ) H,
CH3) via Fe2(CO)9 and Co2(CO)8 was observed.6b Fur-
thermore, reactions of dichlorosilanes with metalate
anions were used to prepare base-stabilized silylene
complexes.1c More recently several reactions have been
reported to involve the extrusion of silylene from
secondary silanes R2SiH2.1a,b,d,i
Although there have been several ditungsten com-
plexes containing bridged carbene ligands reported in
the literature,7 there have been no accounts of such
complexes with µ-silylene ligands. The formation of
silylene-bridged complexes was observed in earlier
reactions of disilanes and metal carbonyls such as
Fe2(CO)9, Ru3(CO)12, Os3(CO)12, and Co2(CO)8.6 How-
ever, up to now in the reaction of tungsten carbonyls
and R2SiH2 (R ) Et,8a Ph8b,c) only bis(µ-silyl)ditungsten
complexes were detected. Here, we report an attempt
to prepare a silylene complex of tungsten in a photo-
chemical reaction of W(CO)6 and Ph2SiH2.
* Corresponding author. Fax: +48 71 328 23 48. Tel: +48 71 375
7221. E-mail: tsz@wchuwr.chem.uni.wroc.pl.
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Resu lts a n d Discu ssion
Upon photolysis of W(CO)6 (1.4 mmol) and Ph2SiH2
(1.4 mmol) in n-heptane (80 cm3), the reaction solution
changed from colorless to orange, and IR spectroscopy
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10.1021/om030512x CCC: $25.00 © 2003 American Chemical Society
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