Investigations into the preparation of sila-β-diketones via 2-trimethylsilyl-1,3-dithianes: structural characterization of a second polymorph of bis(2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-2-sila-3,5-heptanedionato)copper(II)

The sila-β-diketone, 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-2-silaheptane-3,5-dione (tmshdH), was synthesized by the condensation of the anion of 2-trimethylsilyl-1,3-dithiane with 1-bromo-3,3-dimethylbutan-2-one, followed by unmasking of the latent carbonyl moiety with HgO/HgCl₂. A monoclinic polymorph of the known copper(II) complex, Cu(tmshd)₂, was crystallized and studied by X-ray diffraction methods and found to be disordered like the orthorhombic one. Attempts to synthesize the disilylated β-diketone, 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-2,6-disilaheptane-3,5-dione and monosilylated 4,4-dimethyl-4-sila-3-oxo-pentanal using the dithiane method were not successful. However, the 1,3-dithianyl precursors, along with the impurity 2,2^′-bis(trimethylsilyl)-2,2^′-bi-1,3-dithiane, were studied crystallographically. Large stereoelectronic and steric effects on the solid-state bonding parameters were observed for these molecules.