Some Silicon, Germanium, Tin, and Lead Analogues of Carbenes, Alkenes, and Dienes

The isolation and characterization of thermally stable diaminocarbenes and diaminosilylenes has reawakened interest in the low-coordinated compounds of group-14 elements. The existence of these species is presumably due to interactions between the free electron pairs on the nitrogen atoms and the carbene carbon atom or the silicon atom. The present review is mainly concerned with the heavier analogues R2Ge:, R2Sn:, and R2Pb:, systems without intramolecular donor stabilization that owe their existence principally to steric shielding by the voluminous alkyl or aryl groups R. Dimerizations of these electron-sextet molecules give rise to the double-bond systems of the digermenes, distannenes, and diplumbenes; the latter species have for a long time been considered as being incapable of existence. The properties of these molecules are compared with the results of quantum chemical calculations. A separate section is devoted to the isomers of Si4R6, which include novel tetrasilacyclobutenes and the diene analogues, the tetrasilabuta-1,3-dienes.