General Synthesis and Optical Properties of <i>N</i>-Aryl-<i>N</i>′-Silyldiazenes

Abstract

While organo-substituted diazenes (R1–N═N–R2 with R = alkyl, aryl) are a well-studied class of compounds, much less is known about their heavier group 14 analogues, notably because of their perceived instability. We report herein a general oxidative protocol to prepare various N-aryl-N′-silyldiazenes by a fast and mild dehydrogenation of the corresponding silylhydrazines using di-tert-butylazodicarboxylate as an oxidant. The optical properties of these stable blue to purple silyldiazenes were also studied by UV/visible absorption spectroscopy and supported by TD-DFT calculations.