TRANSITION-METAL COMPLEXES OF SILYLENES, SILENES, DISILENES, AND RELATED SPECIES

The chemistry of compounds containing multiple bonds to silicon has increased rapidly in the last ten years but it is only recently that transition metal complexes of such species have been prepared. The synthetic routes to these complexes by addition of a free multiply bonded compound to a suitable transition metal complex and by formation of a multiply, bonded ligand within the coordination sphere of a metal are discussed and compared. The structures and the spectroscopic properties of these novel complexes are also reviewed and some comparisons with the very extensive chemistry of their carbon analogues are made.