Organosilicon Radicals with Si–H and Si–Me Bonds from Commodity Precursors

The cyclic alkyl(amino) carbene (cAAC) stabilized biradicals of composition (cAAC)2SiH2 (1), (cAAC)SiMe2-SiMe2(cAAC) (2), and (cAAC)SiMeCl-SiMeCl(cAAC) (3) have been isolated as molecular species. All the compounds are stable at room temperature for more than 6 months under inert conditions in the solid state. All radical species were fully characterized by single-crystal X-ray structure analysis and EPR spectroscopy. Furthermore, the structure and bonding of compounds 1–3 have been investigated by theoretical methods. Compound 1 contains the SiH2 moiety and this is the first instance, where we have isolated 1 without an acceptor molecule.