Synthesis and isolation of the stable diaryldibromodisilene, Bbt(Br)SiSi(Br)Bbt, has been accomplished for the first time. The dibromodisilene underwent substitution reactions with organometallic reagents on the low-coordinated silicon atom to afford the corresponding substituted disilenes. Furthermore, the reaction of 1 with t-BuLi afforded the corresponding 1,2-diaryldisilyne, BbtSi[triple bond]SiBbt, the characters of which were revealed by spectroscopic and crystallographic analyses.

A novel 1,2-diaryldisilyne, BbtSi≡SiBbt (Bbt = 2,6-bis[bis(trimethyl silyl)methyl]-4-[tris(trimethylsilyl)methyl]phenyl), was synthesized as a stable compound by reduction of the corresponding 1,2-dibromodisilene, Bbt(Br)Si=Si(Br)Bbt. The spectral and structural features of this first stable 1,2-diaryldisilyne are revealed, and the Si≡Si triple-bond character is evaluated with the aid of detailed theoretical calculations. The triple-bond characters of BbtSi≡SiBbt and BbtGe≡GeBbt are compared based on experimental and theoretical results.

The combination of hexamethyldisilane and a catalytic amount of [PdCl(eta3-C3H5)]2-PPh3 was found to be effective for the trimethylsilylation of alcohols, where both of the two trimethylsilyl groups of hexamethyldisilane were transferred to alcohols without coproduction of any stoichiometric amount of byproduct but H2.