Novel aryl-substituted silanes Part II: Synthesis and characterization of diaryl silicon dihydrides.

A series of novel and previously published silicon dihydrides, R2SiH2(R = benzyl, fluorenyl,p-tolyl,p-n-butyl,p-biphenyl,m-tolyl,o-tolyl, 2,4-xylyl, 2,6-xylyl,p-biphenyl, 1-naphthyl, 9-anthracenyl), were synthesized and characterized using1H,13C, and29Si NMR spectroscopy. Effects of substituent bulk on29Si NMR shifts are compared between reported silicon dihydrides species and novel dihydrides herein. In addition, single crystal X-ray diffraction was employed to elucidate the molecular structure of all solid silicon dihydrides and the at room temperature liquid p-tolyl2SiH2. These compounds display non-covalent intermolecular interactions in the form of edge to face, π−π stacking, and CH3···π interactions. The dependency of substituent type on the nature of interactions present will be highlighted and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]