Boryl‐substituted 1‐silacyclobutenes. Formation and molecular structure

The 1,2‐hydroboration of the chloro(hexyn‐1‐yl)‐ ( 1a ) and chloro(phenylethyn‐1‐yl)diphenylsilanes ( 1b ) with 9‐borabicyclo[3.3.1]nonane afforded selectively the alkenylsilanes 2a, b , in which the boryl and the silyl groups are linked to the same olefinic carbon atom. In case of 2a , treatment with phenylethynyl lithium gave a mixture of the alkyn‐1‐ylborate 3a and the alkenyl(phenylethynyl)diphenylsilanes 4a . In the case of 2b , only the alkyn‐1‐ylsilane 4b was identified as an intermediate. Both 4a, b slowly rearranged by intramolecular 1,1‐vinylboration into the silacyclobutenes 5a, b . The intermediates were characterized by ¹H, ¹¹B, ¹³C and ²⁹Si NMR spectroscopy in solution, and the molecular structure of the 1‐silacyclobutene 5a was determined by X‐ray analysis. The gas phase geometries of model molecules corresponding to 5a were optimized by MO calculations using DFT methods [B3LYP/6‐311 + G(d,p) level of theory], found to be in reasonable agreement with the results of the crystal structure determination, and NMR parameters were calculated at the same level of theory. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.