Treatment of NaW
2Cl
7(THF)
5 with 4 equiv of
tBu
3SiNHLi afforded the
C2 W(
III) dimer[(
tBu
3SiNH)
2WCl]
2 (
1,
d(W
![](/images/entities/tbd1.gif)
W) = 2.337(2) Å), which is a rare, primary amide M
2X
4Y
2 species. Its degradationprovided evidence of NH bond activation by the ditungsten bond. Addition of 2 equiv of
tBu
3SiNHLi orTlOSi
tBu
3 to
1 yielded H
2 and hydride (
tBu
3SiN)
2(
tBu
3SiNH)WH (
2,
d(WH) = 1.67(3) Å) or (
tBu
3SiN)
2(
tBu
3SiO)WH (
3). Thermolysis (60
![](/images/entities/deg.gif)
C, 16 h) of
1 in py gave (
tBu
3SiN)
2WHCl(py) (
4-py, 40-50%), (
tBu
3SiN)
2WCl
2(py) (
6-py, 10%), and (
tBu
3SiN)
2HW(
![](/images/entities/mgr.gif)
-Cl)(
![](/images/entities/mgr.gif)
-H)
2W(NSi
tBu
3)py
2 (
5-py
2, 5%), whereas thermolysisin DME produced (
tBu
3SiN)
2WCl(OMe) (
7, 30%), (
tBu
3SiN)
2WCl
2 (
6, 20%), and (
tBu
3SiN)
2HW(
![](/images/entities/mgr.gif)
-Cl)(
![](/images/entities/mgr.gif)
-H)
2W(NSi
tBu
3)DME (
5-DME, 3%). Compound
7 was independently produced via thermolysis of
4-py andDME (-MeOEt, -py), and THF and ethylene oxide addition to hydride
2 gave (
tBu
3SiN)
2(
tBu
3SiNH)WO
nBu(
8) and (
tBu
3SiN)
2(
tBu
3SiNH)WOEt (
9), respectively. Dichloride
6 was isolated from SnCl
4 treatment of
1with the loss of H
2. Sequential NH bond activations by the W
2 core lead to "(
tBu
3SiN)
2WHCl" (
4) and subsequentthermal degradation products. Thermolysis of
1 in the presence of H
2C=CH
tBu and PhC
![](/images/entities/tbd1.gif)
CPh trapped
4 andgenerated (
tBu
3SiN)
2W(
neoHex)Cl (
10) and a ~6:1 mixture of (
tBu
3SiN)
2WCl(
cis-CPh=CPhH) (
11-
cis) and(
tBu
3SiN)
2WCl(
trans-CPh=CPhH) (
11-
trans), respectively. Thermolysis of the latter mixture afforded(
tBu
3SiNH)(
tBu
3SiN)WCl(
2-PhCCPh) (
12) as the major constituent. Alkylation of
1 with MeMgBr produced(
tBu
3SiN)
2W(CH
3)
2 (
13), as did addition of 2 equiv of MeMgBr to
6. X-ray crystal structure determinationsof
1,
2,
5-py
2,
6-py,
11-
trans, and
12 confirmed spectroscopic identifications. A general mechanism that featuresa sequence of NH activations to generate
4, followed by chloride metathesis, olefin insertion, etc., explainsthe formation of all products.