Daniel Greenwald with Adam Tomasik and Dr. Robert West

UW-Madison Department of Chemistry

Silylenes and germylenes are organic compounds that contain dicoordinate and divalent silicon or germanium atoms, respectively.  Silylenes which are stable at room temperature are a relatively recent development, and not much is known about their reactivity.  Thermally stable germylenes are somewhat better known, but their reaction chemistry is still relatively unexplored.

In this paper, the reaction chemistry of various new silylenes and germylenes with a variety of substrates were analyzed using 1H, 13C and 29Si NMR spectroscopy.  Also, a promising new ligand for the production of silylenes and germylenes was synthesized.