SiI 2 —A Novel Triatomic Molecule with a Relativistic Touch

Reaction of pure SiI 4 with elemental silicon in a short‐path thermolysis furnace at 1200K affords SiI 2 , one of the few still unknown of the 1638 triatomic molecules of the 13 most important non‐metals. The assignment of the photoelectron spectrum used for the characterization, which contained seven bands; was accomplished with the help of a quasirelativistic two‐component pseudo‐potential SCF calcuation with DZP basis set; the Koopmans' defects are less than ± 0.33 eV.