Synthesis of the first long-lived bis-silene

The sila-olefination reaction has been used to synthesize the first long-lived bis-silene t-BuMe2Si(Me3Si)Si(2,6-Ad)Si(SiMe3)SiMe2Bu-t (1). In this paper, we report the synthesis, spectroscopic data and some reactions of 1. Our experiments show that the elimination step of sila-olefination reaction is strongly accelerated in diethyl ether (and other ethers) relative to toluene and by increasing the steric bulk around the silicon center undergoing elimination.