Synthesis of a homoleptic tris(silylene)-palladium(0) complex and a silylyne-bridged tetranuclear palladium cluster

We report the reactions of an iminophosphonamido-silylene (1) with different palladium complexes. The reaction of 1 with [Pd(PPh3)(4)] furnished a homoleptic tris(silylene)-palladium(0) complex. In contrast, treatment of 1 with [PdMe2(tmeda)] led to the unprecedented formation of a non-planar mu(3)-silylyne-bridged tetranuclear palladium cluster that contains palladium atoms in different oxidation states.

Automated summary

We investigated the reactions of an iminophosphonamido-silylene with different palladium complexes. The reaction with [Pd(PPh3)(4)] yielded a homoleptic tris(silylene)-palladium(0) complex. Surprisingly, the reaction with [PdMe2(tmeda)] resulted in the formation of a novel non-planar mu(3)-silylyne-bridged tetranuclear palladium cluster with palladium atoms in different oxidation states.