Novel eta 3 -1-silaallyl tungsten complexes via Si-H bond activation of hydrovinylsilanes: structure and reactivity toward methanol.

Reactions of cis-Cp*(CO)2W(MeCN)Me (1) with HSiMe2(CH=CR2) (R = H, Me) afford the novel eta3-1-silaallyl complexes Cp*(CO)2W(eta3-Me2SiCHCR2) [R = H (2), Me (3)] accompanied by liberation of MeCN and CH4 via thermal Si-H bond activation. eta3-Coordination and exo conformation of the 1-silaallyl ligand in 3 are shown by X-ray crystal analysis, which reveals the partial double bond character of the Si-C bond (1.800(4) A) in the silaallyl moiety. Complexes 2 and 3 show extremely high reactivity toward MeOH to give the hydrido-(methoxysilyl)alkene complex trans-Cp*(CO)2WH(eta2-MeOMe2SiCH=CH2) (4) and the four-membered metallacycle Cp*(CO)2WCH(CHMe2)SiMe2OMe (6), respectively.