Non-degenerate 1,2-silyl shift in silyl substituted alkyltrimethylcyclopentadienes

The five new silanes C5Me3RSiMenCl3-n (n = 3, R = i-Pr (5); n = 2, R = i-Pr (6); n = 2, R = s-Bu (7); n = 2, R = cyclohexyl (8); and n = 3, R = t-Bu (9)) were synthesized by reaction of 1-alkyl-2,3,4-trimethylcyclopentadienyl lithium salts with appropriate chlorosilane and characterized by NMR, MS, and IR spectra. At elevated temperatures (250-360 K), all the silanes undergo a nondegenerate sigmatropic silyl rearrangement, which generates non-equivalent structures a and b. The presence of minor structure c was observed in compounds 5 and 7 only. The Diels-Alder cycloaddition of 5 with strong dienophiles tetracyanoethylene (TCNE), and dimethylacetylenedicarboxylate (DMAD) provides compounds 10 and 11, which confirmed isomers a and b, respectively. The free energy of activation of b a isomerization for compounds 5-8 evaluated from variable temperature NMR spectra show only marginal influence of group R on the 1,2-silyl shift rate. Moreover, in compounds 5 and 7, the process b --> a was found significantly faster than b --> c process in the above-mentioned temperature range. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.