title: Stabilization of elusive silicon oxides.
abstract: Molecular SiO2 and other simple silicon oxides have remained elusive despite the indispensable use of silicon dioxide materials in advanced electronic devices. Owing to the great reactivity of silicon-oxygen double bonds, as well as the low oxidation state of silicon atoms, the chemistry of simple silicon oxides is essentially unknown. We now report that the soluble disilicon compound, L:Si=Si:L (where L: = :C{N(2,6-(i)Pr2C6H3)CH}2), can be directly oxidized by N2O and O2 to give the carbene-stabilized Si2O3 and Si2O4 moieties, respectively. The nature of the silicon oxide units in these compounds is probed by spectroscopic methods, complementary computations and single-crystal X-ray diffraction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2556, USA.
authors.forename: Yuzhong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2556, USA.
authors.forename: Mingwei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Center for Computational Chemistry, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2556, USA.
authors.forename: Yaoming
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2556, USA.
authors.forename: Pingrong
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Center for Computational Chemistry, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2556, USA.
authors.forename: Henry F
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Schaefer
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Chemistry, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2556, USA [2] Center for Computational Chemistry, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2556, USA.
authors.forename: Paul von R
authors.initials: Pv
authors.lastname: Schleyer
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2556, USA.
authors.forename: Gregory H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Robinson