Abstract:In the 1,4-dichlorotetrasilane derivative composed of disilane units bearing two pentamethylene tethers, the substitution of a chlorine atom on the silicon atom by the methyl group during the reaction with methyllithium mainly proceeds with inversion of configuration of the silicon atoms, (1) the yield being dramatically improved by the addition of potassium cyanide, and (2) the stereochemistry being changed to retention of configuration by the addition of copper(I) cyanide.Key words: bicyclic compounds, copper(I) cyanide, organosilicon compounds, potassium cyanide, stereoselectivityIn our recent study on the photophysical properties of conformationally controlled oligosilanes using disilane units configurationally constrained into syn or anti by two pentamethylene tethers (Figure), 1 we reported the synthesis of the tetrasilane compound anti,anti-dimer 2 (shown in Scheme) by the reaction of syn,syn-1,4-dichlorotetrasilane 1 with methyllithium with inversion of configuration at both silicon centers.2 Since the yield of this reaction was not satisfactory (30%), we have been trying to optimize the reaction conditions and found the following unprecedented effect by metal cyanides: (1) the yield and the selectivity for 2 are dramatically increased by the addition of potassium cyanide to the reaction mixture, and (2) the stereoselectivity is completely changed from inversion to retention by the change in the countercation of the cyanide salt added, namely from potassium to copper(I). These results are reported in this paper. 6:1, 0°C -r.t., 12 h) revealed that, in addition to the anti,anti-dimer 2 in 30% yield, the anti,syn-dimer 3 arising from the substitution reaction with retention of configuration at one silicon center was also formed in 15% yield (Scheme and Table, entry 1). With the addition of potassium cyanide to this reaction mixture, the yields of 2 were dramatically increased (entries 2 and 3) accompanied by the formation of a small amount of syn,syn-dimer 4, the yields of the anti,syn-dimer 3 remaining nearly the same. Thus, the total number of reactions with inversion of configuration N(inv) and that with retention N(ret) at each silicon center 3 were only slightly changed, keeping the N(inv)/N(ret) at 4.8: 1 ~ 6.8: 1 (Figure 1, none and KCN). Table Yields In contrast, in the presence of a catalytic amount of copper(I) cyanide (0.4 molar amount), the syn,syn-dimer 4 was found to be the major product (50% yield) accompanied by the formation of the anti,syn-dimer 3 (18% yield) (entry 4). The structure of 4 was unambiguously confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analysis as shown in
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