A Neutral Three-Membered 2π Aromatic Disilaborirane and the Unique Conversion into a Four-Membered BSi2 N-Ring.

We report the design, synthesis, structure, bonding, and reaction of a neutral 2π aromatic three-membered disilaborirane. The disilaborirane is synthesized by a facile one-pot reductive dehalogenation of amidinato-silylene chloride and dibromoarylborane with potassium graphite. Despite the tetravalent arrangement of atoms around silicon, the three-membered silicon-boron-silicon ring is aromatic, as evidenced by NMR spectroscopy, nucleus independent chemical shift calculations, first-principles electronic structure studies using density functional theory (DFT) and natural bond orbital (NBO) based bonding analysis. Trimethylsilylnitrene, generated in situ, inserts in the Si-Si bond of disilaborirane to obtain a four-membered heterocycle 1-aza-2,3-disila-4-boretidine derivative. Both the heterocycles are fully characterized by X-ray crystallography.