Structures, energetics, and aromaticities of the tetrasilacyclobutadiene dianion and related compounds: (Si4H4)(2-), (Si4H4)(2-)·2Li+, [Si4(SiH3)4](2-)·2Li+, [Si4(SiH3)4](2-)·2Na+, and [Si4(SiH3)4](2-)·2K+.

In light of the important recent synthesis of a stable tetrasilacyclobutadiene dianion compound by Sekiguchi and co-workers and the absence of theoretical studies, ab initio methods have been used to investigate this dianion and a number of related species. These theoretical methods predict multiple minima for each compound, and most minima contain folded and bicyclic silicon rings. For (Si(4)H(4))(2-), (Si(4)H(4))(2-)·2Li(+), Si(4)(SiH(3))(4)·2Li(+), Si(4)(SiH(3))(4)·2Na(+), and Si(4)(SiH(3))(4)·2K(+), respectively, the energetically lowest-lying structures are designated A-3 (C(2v) symmetry), B-8 (C(1) symmetry), C-1 (C(2) symmetry), D-1 (C(2) symmetry), and E-1 (C(2h) symmetry). None of these structures satisfies both the ring planarity and the cyclic bond equalization criteria of aromaticity. However, all of the representative NICS values of these lowest-lying structures are negative, indicating some aromatic character. Especially, structures C-1 and D-1 of C(2) symmetry effectively satisfy the criteria of aromaticity due to the slightly trapezoidal silicon rings, which are nearly planar with nearly equal bond lengths. SiH(3) substitution for hydrogen in (Si(4)H(4))(2-)·2Li(+) significantly reduces the degree of aromaticity, as reflected in the substantially smaller NICS absolute values for Si(4)(SiH(3))(4)·2Li(+) than those of (Si(4)H(4))(2-) and (Si(4)H(4))(2-)·2Li(+). The aromaticity is further weakened in Si(4)(SiH(3))(4)·2Na(+) and Si(4)(SiH(3))(4)·2K(+) by replacing lithium with the sodium and potassium cations.