Remarkable substituent effects on the activation energy of silylene insertion into silicon-chlorine bonds

Insertion reactions of dimethylsilylene (Me(2)Si:) into the silicon-chlorine bond of various substituted chlorosilanes have been computationally studied by using DFT calculations with a 6-31++G(d,p) basis set. All of the insertions investigated herein were exothermic (more than 40 kcal mol(-1)) and proceeded via three-membered cyclic transition states (TS) with one substituent of a chlorosilane in the ring plane and two other substituents out of the plane. Among the two possible concerted insertion pathways, the pathway via a TS with a silylene lone-pair orbital approaching a chlorosilane silicon atom was preferred. Important nucleophilic interactions of silylene lone-pair orbitals with anti-bonding sigma orbitals of Si-Y (in plane) were supported by carrying out a natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis of the reaction. A radical pathway through the initial abstraction of chlorine from chlorosilane by the silylene cannot compete with the preferred concerted pathway. Systematic calculations for SiMe(2) insertion into various chlorosilanes (YR(2)SiCl; Y (in-plane substituent) = H, Me, NH(2), OH, F, SiH(3), PH(2), SH and Cl; R (out-of-plane substituent) = H, Me, iPr and tBu) have revealed remarkable substituent effects on activation free energies (DeltaG(double dagger)). In-plane (Y) substituent effects were mostly electronic. Electron-withdrawing substituents accelerate the insertion through enhanced nucleophilic interaction between silylene lone-pair orbitals with the sigma*(Si-Y) orbital at the TS. The DeltaG(double dagger) values correlate with the sigma(I) constants as a scale of the inductive effect of Y. Out-of-plane (R) substituent effects are mainly steric, and bulky substituents increase the activation free energy . Correlation of the DeltaG(double dagger) values with Taft's steric substituent constants (E(s)) was observed. There was no significant difference in the out-of-plane substituent effects between the electron-withdrawing Cl and the electron-donating Me groups.