Dehydrogenative Coupling of Alkyl or Arylsilanes Catalyzed by Ti (O-i-Pr)₄

Abstract

Oligo (monosubstituted silanediyl)s have attracted much interest as a component of advanced materials and also as a source of silylenes. Ti (O-i-Pr)₄, which is cheap and easily available, selectively catalyzes dehydrogenative coupling of aryl- or alkylsilanes to give oligo (alkyl or arylsilanediyl) s up to tetrasilanes. This indicates the possibilities of developing new catalysts for the dehydrogenative coupling based on non-metallocene complexes. Although MeTi (O-i-Pr)₃ exhibits catalytic activities similar to Ti (O-i-Pr)₄, many other group 3 or 4 metal alkoxides are inactive for the reaction. Ti (O-iPr)₄ also catalyzes hydrosilylation of alkenes with monosubstituted silanes under similar conditions suggestive of the intermediacy of Ti-H or Ti-Si species in both catalytic cycles.