Cophotolysis of cyclic organosilanes 1–4 with phenanthraquinone
gave silylene insertion products via radical displacement at the
silicon atoms of organosilanes by the photochemically excited
phenanthraquinone.
9,10-Dicyanoanth racene-sen sitized irradiation of 7,8-di silabicyclo[2.2.2]octa-2,5-dienes 1 – 3 in the presence of MeOH resulted in the formation of dimethoxydisilanes and the corresponding aromatic compounds. A stepwise mechanism involving CSi bond cleavage by MeOH is proposed.
Evidence for disilene dimerization was obtained by generating tetraisopropyldisilene from the title compound via the photochemical retrodiene process which produced the expected dimerization product, octaisopropylcyclotetrasilane (30%), in addition to the H-abstraction product, 1,1,2,2-tetraisopropyldisilane (5%).