GENERATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF NEUTRAL AND CATIONIC HYDROGENSILAISOCYANID (IMINOSILICON, HNSI) BY NEUTRALIZATION-REIONIZATION MASS-SPECTROMETRY AND GAUSSIAN-1 AB-INITIO MOLECULAR-ORBITAL CALCULATIONS

Mass spectrometric studies demonstrate that electron bombardment of a mixture of N2/SiH3I results in the formation of HNSi.+ which can be neutralized to the long-sought-after HNSi. The experimental results are complemented by high level ab initio MO calculations using Pople's GAUSSIAN-1 approach. Both theory and experiment point to the formation of HNSi.+ (2SIGMA+)/HNSi (1SIGMA+) rather than the isomeric forms NSiH.+(2SIGMA+)/NSiH (1SIGMA+).