Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 16, 2026

Isolating Free Carbenes, their Mixed Dimers and Organic Radicals
Published on: April 19, 2019
The Structure of the Carbene Stabilized Si2H2 May Be Equally Well Described with Coordinate Bonds as with Classical
Chandrajeet Mohapatra1, Subrata Kundu1, Alexander N Paesch1
1Institut für Anorganische Chemie, Universität Göttingen , Tammannstrasse 4, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
Abstract:
The cyclic alkyl(amino) carbene stabilized Si2H2 has been isolated in the molecular form of composition (Me-cAAC:)2Si2H2 (1) and (Cy-cAAC:)2Si2H2 (2) at room temperature. Compounds 1 and 2 were synthesized from the reduction of HSiCl3 using 3 equiv of KC8 in the presence of 1 equiv of Me-cAAC: and Cy-cAAC:, respectively. These are the first molecular examples of Si2H2 characterized by single crystal X-ray structural analysis. Moreover, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and (1)H as well as (29)Si NMR data are reported. Furthermore, the structure of compound 1 has been investigated by theoretical methods. The theoretical analysis of 1 explains equally well its structure with coordinate bonds as with classical double bonds of a 2,3-disila-1,3-butadiene.
Related Concept Videos
Carbocations
Lewis Structures of Molecular Compounds and Polyatomic Ions
Stability of Conjugated Dienes
A comparison of the enthalpies of hydrogenation of dienes reveals that conjugated dienes release less heat on hydrogenation, rendering them more stable than their nonconjugated analogs.
Radicals: Electronic Structure and Geometry
Accordingly, the structure of a trivalent radical lies between the geometries of carbocations and carbanions. An sp2-hybridized carbocation is trigonal planar, while an sp3-hybridized carbanion is trigonal pyramidal. Here, the difference in geometry is...
Structure of Conjugated Dienes
Conjugated dienes are compounds characterized by the presence of alternating double and single bonds. In a conjugated system like 1,3-butadiene, the unhybridized 2p orbital on each carbon overlaps continuously, allowing the π electrons to be delocalized across the entire molecule. In contrast, this type of overlap does not occur in cumulated and isolated dienes, such as 2,3-pentadiene and 1,4-pentadiene, respectively. Instead, the π electrons remain localized between the double...
Hybridization of Atomic Orbitals I

