Reactions of Vinyldisilanes with Ruthenium Carbonyl

Reaction of (beta)-styrylpentamethyldisilane (la) with Ru3(CO)12 afforded (beta)-styryltrimethylsilane (2a) with elimination of a dimethylsilylene unit, while under similar conditions (alpha)-isomer 1 b yielded 2a together with 1a. Studies on these reactions suggest the formation of silapropenyl and silylene ruthenium complexes as key intermediates.