Synthesis, structures, and kinetics of mixed-donor amido-amino-siloxo ligands from symmetrical diamidosilyl ether ligands via a retro-brook rearrangement

Deprotonation of the new (R = propyl, 3,5-Me(2)Ph) and previously prepared (R = 2,4,6-Me(3)Ph, 2,6-(i)Pr(2)Ph, 3,5-(CF(3))(2)Ph) symmetrical diamidosilyl ether ligand precursors {RNHSiMe(2)](2)O} with 2 equiv of nBuLi in THF resulted in a new class of mixed-donor amido-amino-siloxo ligands of the form {RNLiSiMe(2)N(R)SiMe(2)OLi} (R= propyl (1c), 3,5-Me(2)Ph (2c), 2,4,6-Me(3)Ph (3c), 2,6-(i)Pr(2)Ph (4c), 3,5-(CF(3))(2)Ph (5c)) in one-step and high yield via a retro-Brook-type rearrangement mechanism. Ligands 1c, 3c, and 4c have been structurally characterized in the presence and absence of THF/ether donor solvents and exhibited a range of aggregated structures with ring-laddering, ring-stacking, and cubane motifs; higher-nuclearity clusters for base-free systems were observed for 1c and 4c. 1H, (7)Li, and selected (13)C{(1)H} NMR spectra in THF-d(8) and toluene-d(8) are described; the (7)Li data are indicative of intramolecular fluxional behavior as a function of temperature but do not shed light on the nuclearity of the salts in solution. Reaction kinetics were investigated by variable-temperature 1H NMR spectroscopy and showed that the rate of rearrangement reactions increases with decreasing steric hindrance and with increasing electron-donating ability of the R substituents, with tau(1/2) values ranging from 5.7 x 10(1) to 1.5 x 10(8) s for 2c and 5c, respectively.