Agostic Si-H···Li contacts (i.e.significantly less than ~3.0 Å) are not present in thesolvent-free X-ray structure of[Li{Me
2Si(H)N-
t-Bu}]
3;shorter(
t-Bu)CH
3···Lidistances (~2.8 Å) areobserved instead. The situation in solution is different.While the
1H-
6Li HOESYspectrumof[Li{Me
2Si(H)N-
t-Bu}]in toluene at -80
C evidently detects the same trimericspecies(lacking Si-H···Li interactions, but with short(
t-Bu)CH
3···Licontacts), two major specieswith strong Si-H···Li interactions also are present.In the Li-HN-SiH
3 computationalmodel system, Si-H···Li interactions are favoredenergetically and result in increased Si-Hdistances and decreased Si-H frequencies. AgosticSi-H···metal contacts in the solid stateare found in the X-ray crystal structure of[Mg
2{Me
2Si(H)N-
t-Bu}
4],where Li
"+" is replacedby the more highly charged Mg
"2+". The two shortagostic Si-H···Mg interactions (2.2, 2.5Å) which result also are shown by the two low
(Si-H)frequencies (2040, 1880 cm
-1) intheIR spectrum (Nujol mull) of[Mg
2{Me
2Si(H)N-
t-Bu}
4].