Highly Selective Synthesis and Structural Characterization of Bis(silyl)-[3]-ferrocenophane Derivatives

Bis(silyl)-[3]-ferrocenophanes have been easily prepared via ring-closing silylative coupling of 1,1‘-bis(vinylsilyl)ferrocenes catalyzed by ruthenium hydride complexes. Dimethylvinylsilyl derivative 1 reacts under optimum conditions to give regioselectively and quantitatively disilacyclic product containing an exo-methylene (3) bond between two silicon atoms. The reaction with (diphenylvinylsilyl)ferrocene (2) permits stereoselective synthesis of the product with a cis-vinylene (4) bond between the silicon atoms. The structures of both products, which cannot be synthesized via a ring-closing metathesis procedure, have been confirmed using NMR and X-ray crystal structure methods.