Preparation of a silanone through oxygen atom transfer to a stable cyclic silylene.

We report the evaporation of a stable cyclic silylene and its oxidation (with ozone or N2 O) through oxygen atom transfer to form the corresponding silanone under matrix isolation conditions. As uncomplexed silanones are rare owing to their very high reactivity, this method provides an alternative route to these sought-after molecules. The silanone, as well as a novel bicyclic silane with a bridgehead silicon atom derived from an intramolecular silylene CH bond insertion, were characterized by comparison of high-resolution infrared spectra with density functional theory (DFT) computations at the M06-2X/cc-pVDZ level of theory.