Isolation and Reactivity of a Digerma Analogue of
Vinyllithiums: a Lithium Digermenide
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Abstract
The versatile reactivity
of disilenides, heavier analogues of vinyl
anions, opened the door to novel heavier group 14 structure motifs
with residual functionalities in the periphery around the SiSi
moiety. The corresponding germanium analogue, digermenide Tip<sub>2</sub>GeGe(Tip)Li·dme<sub>2</sub> (Tip = 2,4,6-triisopropylphenyl,
dme = 1,2-dimethoxyethane), has now been obtained from the reduction
of Tip<sub>2</sub>GeCl<sub>2</sub> with 3.3 equiv of Li powder and
a catalytic amount of naphthalene in dme at −70 °C. The
lithium digermenide was characterized by NMR spectroscopy, UV/vis
spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and DFT calculations. As proof of
principle for its suitability for the nucleophilic transfer of the
GeGe motif, the reaction with chlorosilanes leads to the unsymmetrically
substituted digermenes Tip<sub>2</sub>GeGe(Tip)SiR<sub>3</sub>
