Recent advances in the chemistry of heavier group 14 analogues of carbonyls

Heavier analogues of carbonyls, in the form of "R2E=O" (E = Si, Ge, Sn, Pb), feature a high polar E=O double bond. In contrast to carbonyl compounds, heavier analogues are extremely unstable and prone to proceed head-to-tail oligomerization. Thus, the isolation of such species under ambient conditions is a challenging synthetic target in main group chemistry. In recent years, much progress has been achieved in the synthesis and isolation of a variety of Lewis base/acid, Lewis base-stabilized and even Lewis acid/base free heavier analogues. These compounds exhibit interesting reactivities, such as small molecule activation and metathesis reactions, indicating the potential of heavier analogues in synthetic chemistry. This review summarizes the recent achievements in the chemistry of Lewis base and/or acid stabilized heavier analogues of carbonyls, including synthetic approaches, structural parameters and reactivity of these isolable compounds.

Strained and Reactive Donor/Acceptor-Supported Metallasilanone

A novel stable donor/acceptor-supported Mn^I -metallasilanone 3 was synthesized. The intramolecular silanone-Mn^I interaction induces a highly strained three-membered cyclic structure, leading to an exceptionally high reactivity of 3 as a donor/acceptor complex of silanone. Indeed, metallasilanone 3 readily reacts with various small molecules such as H₂ or ethylene gas in mild conditions.

Dynamic/Thermochemical Balance Drives Unusual Alkyl/F Exchange Reactions in Siloxides and Analogs

A recent report has shown that siloxides can undergo an unusual Me/F exchange reaction promoted by NF3 in the gas phase ( Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 8632-8635). A more extensive study of this kind of exchange has been carried out using mass spectrometry techniques (FT-ICR), DFT calculations, natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis, and Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics simulations (BOMD), using NF3, SO2F2, and CF4 as fluorine donors and evaluating the effect of replacing the Si center by Ge and C. This comprehensive approach shows that NF3 is crucial for the exchange reaction, as SO2F2 forms SO3F(-) via a pentacoordinated channel whereas no reaction is observed for CF4. The uniqueness of NF3 is caused by favorable thermochemical consideration and by dynamic effects that preclude the formation of the ubiquitous Si-F pentacoordinated species. Me3GeO(-) was shown to be as reactive as siloxides toward NF3, whereas C analogs showed no reactions under our experimental conditions. The exchange reaction was also shown to take place for triethylsiloxides. These exchange reactions are examples of reaction systems that avoid the lower energy pathway and are driven by dynamic effects that cannot be explained by the potential energy surface.

Synthesis, structure and a nucleophilic coordination reaction of Germanetellurones

A germylene germanetellurone adduct L(Cp)GeTe(GeCl₂), a pentafluorophenyl gold(i) germanethione and germaneselone compounds L(Me)GeE(AuC₆F₅) (E = S and Se) are herein reported.