Stabilization of elusive silicon oxides

Yuzhong Wang; Mingwei Chen; Yaoming Xie; Pingrong Wei; Henry F Schaefer 3rd; Paul von R Schleyer; Gregory H Robinson

doi:10.1038/nchem.2234

Stabilization of elusive silicon oxides

Nat Chem. 2015 Jun;7(6):509-13. doi: 10.1038/nchem.2234. Epub 2015 Apr 20.

Authors

Yuzhong Wang¹, Mingwei Chen¹, Yaoming Xie², Pingrong Wei¹, Henry F Schaefer 3rd², Paul von R Schleyer³, Gregory H Robinson¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2556, USA.
² Center for Computational Chemistry, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2556, USA.
³ 1] Department of Chemistry, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2556, USA [2] Center for Computational Chemistry, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2556, USA.

PMID: 25991530
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.2234

Abstract

Molecular SiO2 and other simple silicon oxides have remained elusive despite the indispensable use of silicon dioxide materials in advanced electronic devices. Owing to the great reactivity of silicon-oxygen double bonds, as well as the low oxidation state of silicon atoms, the chemistry of simple silicon oxides is essentially unknown. We now report that the soluble disilicon compound, L:Si=Si:L (where L: = :C{N(2,6-(i)Pr2C6H3)CH}2), can be directly oxidized by N2O and O2 to give the carbene-stabilized Si2O3 and Si2O4 moieties, respectively. The nature of the silicon oxide units in these compounds is probed by spectroscopic methods, complementary computations and single-crystal X-ray diffraction.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.