Reactivity of Anionic Pentacoordinated Silicon Complexes towards Nucleophiles

Steric hindrance seldom plays a role in nucleophilic substitutions at silicon, since the pentacoordinated Si anions of 1, R, R = Me, Ph, 1-naphthyl, react far more rapidly with nucleophiles, e.g. PhMgBr, than the neutral compound 2. “By-products” of the reactivity study are new synthetic methods for RSiH3, RR′2SiH, and RSiR′3 (R′ = alkyl, aryl).