Silacyclohexanes, Sila(hetero)cyclohexanes and Related Compounds: Structure and Conformational Analysis

Conformational analysis of Si-mono- and Si,Si-disubstituted silacyclohexanes as well as their analogues with a heteroatom(s) in the ring is reviewed with the focus on the recent results. Experimental measurements in the gas phase (gas electron diffraction, GED) and low temperature NMR spectroscopy (LT NMR) on ¹H, ¹³C and ²⁹Si nuclei are described along with theoretical calculations at the DFT and MP2 levels of theory. Structural and conformational specific features are shown to be principally different from those of the carbon predecessors—the corresponding cyclohexanes, oxanes, thianes and piperidines. The role of various effects (steric, hyperconjugation, stereoelectronic, electrostatic) is demonstrated.

Conformational Preferences of the Phenyl Group in 1-Phenyl-1-X-1-silacyclo-hexanes (X = MeO, HO) and 3-Phenyl-3-X-3-silatetrahydropyrans (X = HO, H) by Low Temperature 13C NMR Spectroscopy and Theoretical Calculations

New Si-phenyl-substituted silacyclohexanes and 3-silatetrahydropyrans have been synthesized and studied with respect to the conformational equilibria of the heterosix-membered ring by low temperature ¹³C NMR spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations. For 1-methoxy-1-phenylsilacyclohexane 1 and 3-phenyl-3-silatetrahydropyran 4 the conformational equilibria could be frozen and assigned. The Ph_ax ⇆ Ph_eq equilibrium constants at 103 K are 2.21 for 1 and 4.59 for 4. In complete agreement with former studies of similar silicon compounds, molecules 1 and 4 prefer to adopt the Ph_eq conformation. The conformational equilibria of 1-hydroxy-1-phenylsilacyclohexane 2 and 3-hydroxy-3-phenyl-3-silatetrahydropyran 3 could not be frozen at 100 K and proved to be heavily one-sided (if not anancomeric). Obviously, there is a general trend of predominance of Ph_ax conformer in the gas phase and of Ph_eq in solution. For the isolated molecules of silanols 2 and 3, calculations allowed to explain the axial predominance of the phenyl group by a larger polarization of the Si-Ph than of the Si-O bond in the Ph_ax conformer and additional destabilization of 3-Ph_eq conformer by repulsion of unidirectional dipoles of the endocyclic oxygen lone pair and of the highly polar axial Si-O bond.