Photolysis of Hexamethyldisilane at 147 nm

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/j100438a001

Hexamethyldisilane vapor was photolyzed at 147 nm and various additives were used to intercept suspected reactive intermediates.The following primary products (quantum yields) were deduced from the product distribution of the collected experiments: (CH3)3Si (0.99), CH3 (0.51), (CH3)2SiCH2 (0.41), (CH3)3SiH (0.26), H (0.20), CH4 (0.08), and H2 (0.06).The cross disproportionation to combination ratio of CH3 and (CH3)3Si is determined to be 0.22 +/- 0.06 with no observable dependence on pressure or diluent (N2) concentration. (CH3)3Si abstraction of hydrogen competitive with radical recombination rates is also consistent with the results.The rate of reaction of (CH3)SiCH2 with methanol is found to be similar to that of (CH3)SiCH2 produced by photolyzing (CH3)4Si and 1,1-dimethyl-1-silacyclobutane; however, the pressure dependence found for this reaction in the last two systems is absent for (CH3)2SiCH2 produced in the photolysis of hexamethyldisilane.