Sila[1]ferrocenophanes with Bulky Substituents

In this study, sila[1]ferrocenophanes with sterically bulky groups such as tris(trimethylsilyl) or N-heterocyclic iminato located at the bridging silicon atom are synthesized. The reactions of silicon-bound chloride in Fe(η⁵-C₅H₄)₂SiCl₂ (1) with K[Si(SiMe₃)₃] and silylated N-heterocyclic imine result in sila[1]ferrocenophanes 2 and 3 with bulky silicon- and nitrogen-based substituents at the ansa-bridge via elimination of KCl and Me₃SiCl. Subsequently, the reduction of 1 is attempted using 2,3,5,6-tetramethyl-1,4-bis(trimethylsilyl)-1,4-dihydropyrazine (popularly known as Mashima reagent), which leads to the elimination of Me₃SiCl and generation of 1,4-dihydropyrazine-spanned sila[1]ferrocenophanes (4). All the compounds are structurally characterized.