Neutral and Cationic Complexes of Silicon(IV) Halides with Phosphine Ligands

The reaction of SiI4 and PMe3 in n-hexane produced the yellow salt, [SiI3(PMe3)2]I, confirmed from its X-ray structure, containing a trigonal bipyramidal cation with trans-phosphines. This contrasts with the six-coordination found in (the known) trans-[SiX4(PMe3)2] (X = Cl, Br) complexes. The diphosphines o-C6H4(PMe2)2 and Et2P(CH2)2PEt2 form six-coordinate cis[SiI4(diphosphine)], which were also characterized by X-ray crystallography, multinuclear NMR, and IR spectroscopy. Reaction of trans-[SiX4(PMe3)2] (X = Cl, Br) with Na[BArF] (BArF = [B{3,5(CF3)2C6H3}4]) produced five-coordinate [SiX3(PMe3)2][BArF], but while Me3SiO3SCF3 also abstracted chloride from trans-[SiCl4(PMe3)2], the reaction products were six-coordinate complexes [SiCl3(PMe3)2(OTf)] and [SiCl2(PMe3)2(OTf)2] with the triflate coordinated. X-ray crystal structures were obtained for [SiCl3(PMe3)2][BArF] and [SiCl2(PMe3)2(OTf)2]. The charge distribution across the silicon species was also examined by natural bond orbital (NBO) analyses of the computed density functional theory (DFT) wavefunctions. For the [SiX4(PMe3)2] and [SiX3(PMe3)2]+ complexes, the positive charge on Si decreases and the negative charge on X decreases going from X = F to X = I. Upon going from [SiX4(PMe3)2] to [SiX3(PMe3)2]+, i.e., removal of X-, there is an increase in positive charge on Si and a decrease in negative charge on the X centers (except for the case X = F). The positive charge on P shows a slight decrease.