TRIPLE BONDS IN SMALL RINGS - TESTING THE LIMITS OF CHEMICAL-BONDS

Mission Impossible? This is hardly true for the quest for small‐ring alkynes. Maier et al. (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 1994, 33, 1248) combined a new method of gas‐phase pyrolysis with matrix isolation techniques to synthesize a three‐membered ring compound with a CC bond, the CH2Si isomer 3, from disilane 1 [Eq. (a)] and characterize it by spectroscopy. More information on the exact bonding and the anticipated reactivity of this highly strained compound are eagerly awaited. (Figure Presented.) Copyright © 1994 by VCH Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Germany