Chemo-reductive silylation of hypersilyl arenes – Unusual cleavage of an aromatic Cdouble bond; length as m-dashC double-bond

The new compounds 1,1,6,6-tetrakis(trimethylsilyl)-3-tris(trimethylsilyl)silyl-hexa-2,4-diene (3) and 2,4,6-trimethyl-3,4-bis(trimethylsilyl)-1-tris(trimethylsilyl)silyl-cyclohexa-1,5-diene (4b) have been isolated as by-products from the reaction of PhSiCl3 or MesSiCl3 with Me3SiCl and lithium in THF at low temperatures. The X-ray crystal structures of 3 and 4b are reported.