The thermolysis of ε-halodisilanes: a preference for 1,2-Si Si → O rearrangement or Si—O cleavage over Si=O bond formation

Tris(trimethylsilyl)-2,2,2-trifluoroethoxysilane 6, tris(trimethylsilyl)-2-fluoroethoxysilane 7, and tris(trimethylsilyl)-2-chloroethoxysilane 8 were synthesized and characterized by 1H, 13C and 29Si NMR, IR spectroscopy, and EI and CI mass spectrometry. Thermodynamic considerations would suggest that, as a result of the driving force provided by the formation of a Si—F or Si—CI bond, the thermolyses of these compounds would lead to the formation of bis(trimethylsilyl)silanone 4. To examine this question, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry was as used a detection technique for products resulting from the high-pressure thermolyses of 6–8. The elimination of (Me3Si)3SiCl appears to be the major thermolytic pathway of decomposition for 8 at ambient or higher pressures, although it is accompanied by the formation of other products, some of which could have arisen from the addition of various halosilanes to a silanone. Neither 6 nor 7 thermolyzed cleanly; the former compound was essentially unreactive under the thermolysis temperatures used (850 °C). Of the products produced in the thermolysis of 7, no evidence for the formation of the silanone was obtained. Independently, mass spectrometry was used to study unimolecular reactions of molecular ions derived from 6–8. The major route to solitary ions appears to involve a 1,2-trimethylsilyl migration from Si to O (9 → 10) prior to decomposition, for example, of the m/z 346 parent ion in the decomposition of 6. The preparation of the ionized silanone may be a minor pathway. Some of the other fragmentation pathways for 6–8 are discussed. Key words: gas phase thermolysis, ion rearrangements, silyl group migration, silanone, halosilane.