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Directed Gas Phase Formation of Silene (H 2 SiCH 2 )
Author(s) -
Yang Zhenghai,
Doddipatla Srinivas,
He Chao,
Krasnoukhov Vladislav S.,
Azyazov Valeriy N.,
Mebel Alexander M.,
Kaiser Ralf I.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.202002359
Subject(s) - silane , chemistry , radical , isomerization , silicon , silanes , hydrogen , photochemistry , silene , computational chemistry , catalysis , organic chemistry , biology , genetics
The silene molecule (H 2 SiCH 2 ; X 1 A 1 ) has been synthesized under single collision conditions via the bimolecular gas phase reaction of ground state methylidyne radicals (CH) with silane (SiH 4 ). Exploiting crossed molecular beams experiments augmented by high‐level electronic structure calculations, the elementary reaction commenced on the doublet surface through a barrierless insertion of the methylidyne radical into a silicon‐hydrogen bond forming the silylmethyl (CH 2 SiH 3 ; X 2 A′) complex followed by hydrogen migration to the methylsilyl radical (SiH 2 CH 3 ; X 2 A′). Both silylmethyl and methylsilyl intermediates undergo unimolecular hydrogen loss to silene (H 2 SiCH 2 ; X 1 A 1 ). The exploration of the elementary reaction of methylidyne with silane delivers a unique view at the widely uncharted reaction dynamics and isomerization processes of the carbon–silicon system in the gas phase, which are noticeably different from those of the isovalent carbon system thus contributing to our knowledge on carbon silicon bond couplings at the molecular level.