The gas-phase reactions of the bare tungsten cation
W+ with silane have been investigated using
Fourier-Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance mass spectrometry.
Dehydrogenation of a first molecule leads to the
formation
of WSiH2
+. This ion is itself reactive
with a second silane molecule, this time through elimination of
2H2, to form
WSi2H2
+. A similar reaction
follows, yielding WSi3H2
+ as the
next product ion, which itself leads to both
WSi4H4
+
and WSi4H2
+. This seems to
initiate two parallel reaction sequences, yielding
WSi10H6
+ as the major final
product,
together with a minor amount of
WSi10H4
+. CID experiments on
the products of the first three reactions were
carried out to aid in their structural elucidation. Ab initio
calculations at the CASSCF level have been performed
in order to derive optimum structures for the first two product ions
WSiH2
+ and
WSi2H2
+, and for the
non-observed
intermediate WSi2H4
+. The
results show that structural isomerism exists for these three ions, due
to the versatile
bonding capabilities of W+ and Si. The ground state
of WSiH2
+ is a high-spin (sextet) silylene
complex in which
there is a dative bond between SiH2 and the metal. For
WSi2H4
+ there are two low-energy
isomers, a covalently
bonded metal disilene three-membered ring with a quartet spin state,
and a datively bonded metal silylsilylene in a
high-spin sextet. It is proposed that the successive ions formed
have compact structures, and that the reaction sequence
ends when the metal gets trapped into a silicon cage, or alternatively
when it no longer has enough nonbonding
electrons to insert exothermically into a Si−H bond of a further
silane molecule.