The use of tri(alkoxy)silanes (RO)3SiH, which have recently become commercially available
in greater than research scale quantities (R = Me, Et), has been probed for the preparation
of hydrogen-rich arylsilanes ArSiH3. It was found that the silylation of aryl-lithium or (in
situ) aryl-Grignard reagents is followed by RO/H ligand redistribution and can lead to fully
hydrogenated products in a one-pot reaction without employment of any additional metal
hydride. After hydrolytic workup, the overall yields are between 20 and 30%. Silane gas
and tetra(alkoxy)silanes are the main byproducts. At an early stage of the reactions, the
whole set of mixed-ligand silanes (RO)3
-
n
H
n
SiAr can be detected by GLC/MS techniques.
Induced by the organometallic base, the reaction also includes aryl scrambling to give silanes
Ar
n
SiH4
-
n
, Ar
n
Si(OR)4
-
n
, and Ar
n
Si(H/OR)4
-
n
. A reaction scheme is proposed that accounts
for the product distribution. Examples are given for Ar = phenyl, 4-biphenylyl, 4,4‘-biphenyldiyl, 1-naphthyl, and 2-anisyl. The reaction gives only very poor yields of di(silyl)arenes. Silanes of this type were therefore prepared from (RO)3SiH compounds and the
corresponding di(halo)arenes by the in situ Grignard procedure followed by LiAlH4 reduction.
Representative cases are 1,2- and 1,4-di(silyl)benzene and 1,4-di(silyl)-2,5-dimethylbenzene.
The primary reaction products 1,4-(EtO)3SiC6H4Si(OEt)3 and 1,4-[(EtO)3Si]2-2,5-(CH3)2C6H2
have been isolated, and the crystal structure of the latter was determined.