A Molecular Orbital Study of Silylated Carbenes

Abstract
The geometry and electronic properties of methylene, methylcarbene, carboxycarbene, phenylcarbene, trimethylsilylcarbene, silylcarbene, carboxysilylcarbene, and phenylsilylcarbene have been determined by MINDO/3 calculation. Introduction of a silyl group results in considerable decrease in ionization potential of carbenes. The electron affinity is increased to some extent by such substitution. The computation suggests a bent geometry for optimized triplet trimethylsilylcarbene structure, in conflict with a recent postulate that the ground-state molecule has an essentially linear structure.