The molecular structures of CH(SiMe2H)3 and CH(SiMe2Br)3 have been determined by gas-phase electron diffraction, ab initio calculations, and, for CH(SiMe2Br)3, X-ray diffraction. In each case, 11 distinct conformations, with energies lying within a range of 8.5 kJ mol−1 for CH(SiMe2H)3 and 26 kJ mol−1 for CH(SiMe2Br)3, were calculated and thus many conformers for both compounds are likely to exist in the gas phase. The structures are compared with those of related alkylsilanes to assess the changes in molecular geometry resulting from crowding at the carbon centre.
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