Activation of carbon disulfide by a hypersilyl germylene

Abstract

In this work, the insertion of CS₂ into the Ge–Si bond of PhC(NtBu)₂Ge–Si(SiMe₃)₃ (1) has been investigated, resulting in the formation of PhC(NtBu)₂Ge–C(S)–S–Si(SiMe₃)₃ (2). Interestingly, the addition of NHC to 2 allows the release of NHC·CS₂ with concomitant regeneration of 1. Addition of another equivalent of 1 or an analogous hypersilyl silylene, [PhC(NtBu)₂Si–Si(SiMe₃)₃], to 2 led to the formation of compounds with a GeS (3) or a SiS (4) bond.