Reacting cesium fluoride with an equimolar n-hexane solution of lithium bis(trimethylsilyl)amide (LiHMDS) allows the isolation of CsHMDS (1) in 80% yield (after sublimation). This preparative route to 1 negates the need for pyrophoric Cs metal or organocesium reagents in its synthesis. If a 2:1 LiHMDS:CsF ratio is employed, the heterobimetallic polymer [LiCs(HMDS)2]∞ 2 was isolated (57% yield). By combining equimolar quantities of NaHMDS and CsHMDS in hexane/toluene [toluene·NaCs(HMDS)]∞ 3 was isolated (62% yield). Attempts to prepare the corresponding potassium-cesium amide failed and instead yielded the known monometallic polymer [toluene·Cs(HMDS)]∞ 4. With the aim of expanding the structural diversity of Cs(HMDS) species, 1 was reacted with several different Lewis basic donor molecules of varying denticity, namely, (R,R)-N,N,N',N'-tetramethylcyclohexane-1,2-diamine [(R,R)-TMCDA] and N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine (TMEDA), N,N,N',N″,N″-pentamethyldiethylenetriamine (PMDETA), tris[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl]amine (Me6-TREN) and tris[2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethyl]amine (TMEEA). These reactions yielded dimeric [donor·NaCs(HMDS)2]2 5-7 [where donor is (R,R)-TMCDA, TMEDA and PMDETA respectively], the tetranuclear "open"-dimer [{Me6-TREN·Cs(HMDS)}2{Cs(HMDS)}2] 8 and the monomeric [TMEEA·Cs(HMDS)] 9. Complexes 2, 3, and 5-9 were characterized by X-ray crystallography and in solution by multinuclear NMR spectroscopy.

The zwitterionic complex [Cp*IrCl{(MeIm)2CHCOO}] (1) efficiently catalyzes the selective hydrosilylation of CO2 to afford the corresponding silylformate. The best reaction performance has been achieved in acetonitrile at 348 K using HSiMe2Ph. The 1‐catalyzed reaction of pyrrolidine with CO2 and HSiMe2Ph strongly depends on the CO2 pressure. At low concentration of CO2 (1 bar) formation of the corresponding silylcarbamate, by insertion of CO2 into the Si−N bond of the in situ generated silylamine was observed, while at higher pressure (3 bar) the formamide derivative was obtained as major reaction product. The unexpected formation of pyrrolidin‐1‐ium formate as intermediate of the reaction the 1‐catalyzed of CO2 with pyrrolidine and HSiMe2Ph has been observed, and its role in the formation of 1‐formylpyrrolidine rationalized. Moreover, a mechanism for the reaction of CO2 with hydrosilanes, in the presence and in the absence of amines, based on theoretical calculations has been proposed.

The structural chemistry of eleven donor complexes of the important Brønsted base potassium 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexamethyldisilazide (KHMDS) has been studied. Depending on the donor, each complex adopted one of five general structural motifs. Specifically, in this study the donors employed were toluene (to give polymeric 1 and dimeric 2), THF (polymeric 3), N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine (TMEDA) (dimeric 4), (R,R)-N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-1,2-diaminocyclohexane [(R,R)-TMCDA] (dimeric 5), 12-crown-4 (dimeric 6), N,N,N',N'-tetramethyldiaminoethyl ether (TMDAE) (tetranuclear dimeric 8 and monomeric 10), N,N,N',N'',N''-pentamethyldiethylenetriamine (PMDETA) (tetranuclear dimeric 7), tris[2-dimethyl(amino)ethyl]amine (MeTREN) (tetranuclear dimeric 9) and tris{2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethyl}amine (TMEEA) (monomeric 11). The complexes were also studied in solution by H andC NMR spectroscopy as well as DOSY NMR spectroscopy.