Silyl stabilized azanes: Reactions of mono- and dilithium bis(trimethylsilyl)hydrazide with dichloro- and tetrachlorostannane

SnCl₄ acts primarily as an oxidant and oxidizes monolithium bis(trimethylsilyl) hydrazide 1 to mainly bis(trimethylsilyl)amine, BSA and tris(trimethylsilyl)hydrazine, TrSH and itself get reduced to SnCl₂. Similarly, reaction of SnCl₄ with dilithiumbis(trimethylsilyl) hydrazide 2, oxidizes it to lithium tris(trimethylsilyl)hydrazide, Li-TrSH. Reaction of dichlorostannane (reduction of oxidation state of tin from +4 to +2) with 1 gives a simple substitution reaction and give a pale yellow solid, 1,4-bis(trimethylsilyl)-1,2,4,5-tetraza-3,6-distannacyclohexane, 3b. Whereas, in reaction of 2 with SnCl₂ intermediate stannimine (Me₃Si)₂N-NSn], tetramerizes and further loses tetrakis(trimethylsilyl)tetrazene, TST to give a cubane compound (Me₃Si)N-Sn]₄, 4.