The present review provides a comprehensive survey on the molecular structure of silaheterocyclic compounds (silacyclopropanes, silacyclobutanes, silacyclopentanes, silacyclohexanes and derivatives with larger rings, as well as compounds with fused and unsaturated heterocycles). In a lot of cases the heterocycles include also heteroatoms other than silicon, however, all silaheterocycles under consideration contain only Si-C bonds.
INTRODUCTIONThe results of the structural investigations of the organosilicon heterocycles were reviewed in 1989 [1], However, sila-heterocycles have been the subject of extensive studies over the last 10 years. Much attention has been focused on the synthesis and structural characterization both derivatives with small rings and the macrocyclic compounds. There has been also a considerable interest in the cyclic π-electronic systems containing the silicon atom. Much of this interest concerns the possibility of aromatic character for the silole anions and dianions. Recently the first neutral silaaromatic compound -2-silanaphthalene was successfully isolated and structurally characterized. Our review is an attempt to summarize and systematize the numerous papers scattered in literature on this subject.