Pentasila-1,4-diene: Homoconjugation between Si═Si Double Bonds via a SiMe2 Unit

What is it about?

Homoconjugation is one of the important orbital interaction. In this paper, we synthesized a pentasila-1,4-diene that bears two Si=Si double bonds linked by SiMe2 group and exhibits a substantial homoconjugation between the two Si=Si double bonds.

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Why is it important?

Compounds that have conjugated Si=Si double bonds should be a unique pi-electron systems as the Si=Si double bond has a considerably smaller HOMO-LUMO gap compared to that of C=C double bonds. However, as the Si=Si double bonds should be protected by bulky groups to prevent from polymerization, the number of the compounds that have Si=Si double bonds connected directly to each other remain limited. This study demonstrates that homoconjugation is one of the possible effective conjugation between two Si=Si double bonds.