Synthesis and Structural Characterization of Isomeric Bis[3,4,5,6-tetrakis(trimethylsilyl)cyclohexen-1-yl]dimethoxysilanes

Reductive polysilylations of PhSiCl3 and PhMeSiCl2 were reported to occur with excess lithium and Me3SiCl in THF to yield tetrasilylated cyclohexene (Ttc = tetrakis(trimethylsilyl)cyclohex-1-ene) derivatives. However, to our knowledge, no investigation for the synthesis of a compound having two Ttc substituents on the same silicon atom has been appeared. Recently, we reported the Birch-type reductive polysilylation of dimethoxymethylphenylsilane with excess Li and chlorotrimethylsilane in THF solvent, which gave not only tetrasilylated cyclohexenyl derivatives, 1, but interesting five-membered ring contracted compounds, 2. These results indicated that substituents on silicon atom other than phenyl groups play an important role in the reductive polysilylation process