Elegant approach to spacer arranged silagermylene and bis(germylene) compounds

Herein we report on the reactions of the stable LSiCl (1) and LGeCl (2) [L = PhC(NtBu)(2)] with L(1)Ge, [L(1) = CH{(C=CH(2))(CMe)(2,6-iPr(2)C(6)H(3)N)(2)}] (3) to yield 1-sila-5- germylene (4) and a 1,5-bis(germylene) (5). The reactions proceed through the 1,4 nucleophilic addition of the M-Cl (M = Si or Ge) to 3 without any modification of the oxidation state although the change of the oxidation state is thermodynamically more favorable. Compounds 4 and 5 were investigated by single crystal X-ray structural analyses, multi-nuclear NMR spectroscopy, and micro-analysis. Treatment of L(1)AlMe.thf (6) with 1 resulted in the formation of the 1-sila-5-aluminium complex (7). The complex contains a Si(II) and an Al(III) atom in the molecule. All reported reactions proceed without changing the oxidation states at the metal centers.