Potential energy surfaces for SiH4
-
n
Hal
n
+ 2NH3 (I) and SiH
n
Hal4
-
n
+ 2H2O (II) systems (n = 2, 4; Hal =
F, Cl) were explored using the B3LYP and MP2 methods with 6-311+G(d,p) and DZP+diff basis sets in
search of stable tightly bound complexes with hexacoordinate silicon. Despite discrepancies in values of the
complexation energies, all methods employed predict a similar order of stability of isomers. In contrast to
monohalosilanes, where tight complexes are metastable, the energies of all low-entropy complexes in I are
below those of the reactants. However, only for the SiH2Cl2, SiF4, and SiCl4 complexes were the tight structures
found to be global minima. The predicted SiN bond lengths in these species are in a good agreement with
experimentally determined parameters for complexes of these three halosilanes with pyridines. In the water
systems (II), the tight octahedral complexes (with water molecules in axial and equatorial positions) are
predicted to lie below reactants only for the SiF4 + 2H2O system. A loosely bound complex is the global
minimum for this system, as well as for complexes of SiH2F2 and SiH2Cl2 with two water molecules. No
minimum with energy below those of the reactants was found for the SiCl4 + 2H2O system.