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Thermal treatment of the bicyclo[1.1.0]tetrasilatetraamide [Si4{N(SiMe3)Dipp}4] 1 resulted in the formation of a highly unsaturated six-vertex silicon cluster [Si6{N(SiMe3)Dipp}4] 2 with only four amine-substituents and two ligand-free silicon atoms., Thermal treatment of the bicyclo[1.1.0]tetrasilatetraamide [Si4{N(SiMe3)Dipp}4] 1 resulted in the formation of a highly unsaturated six-vertex silicon cluster [Si6{N(SiMe3)Dipp}4] 2 with only four amine-substituents and two ligand-free silicon atoms. In solution, a major and a minor conformer of this cluster are in equilibrium according to multinuclear NMR spectroscopy, lineshape analysis, DFT calculations and molecular dynamics simulations. The bonding situation in the highly unsaturated cluster features lone pair type character at the ligand-free silicon atoms and partial single and double bond character in the upper butterfly-shaped ring of 2. This allows to consider 2 as the silicon analogue of a butalene isomer.

The synthesis and spectroscopic and structural characterization of an extensive series of acyclic, monomeric tetrylene dichalcogenolates of formula M(ChAr)2 (M = Si, Ge, Sn, Pb; Ch = O, S, or Se; Ar = bulky m-terphenyl ligand, including two new acyclic silylenes) are described. They were found to possess several unusual features—the most notable of which is their strong tendency to display acute interligand, Ch–M–Ch, bond angles that are often well below 90°. Furthermore, and contrary to normal steric expectations, the interligand angles were found to become narrower as the size of the ligand was increased. Experimental and structural data in conjunction with high-level DFT calculations, including corrections for dispersion effects, led to the conclusion that dispersion forces play an important role in stabilizing their acute interligand angles. peerReviewed