Crystal Structure of a 2-Biphenyl-2-yl-1,1,3,4-tetraphenyl-1H-silole

Abstract

Crystals of silole (silole = silacyclopentadiene) analogue, 2-biphenyl-2-yl-1,1,3,4-tetraphenyl-1H-silole, were grown from a dichloromethane/hexane solution and the crystal structure was determined. The crystal belongs to the monoclinic system with space group of P2₁/c. There is an intramolecular π-π interaction in an asymmetric unit, and the shortest distance between one of the phenyl rings in the biphenyl and the phenyl ring at the 3-position of silole is about 3.643 Å. This silole can be used as a potential building block for generating linear polymers containing the silole moiety owing to the labile nature of the proton attached at the 2-position.