Ir(I)/HCl Catalyzed Head-to-Tail Homocoupling Reactions of Vinylsilanes

Novel homocoupling reactions of vinylsilanes, catalyzed by a mixture of Ir(I) and HCl, were developed. This process leads to exclusive formation of head-to-tail vinylsilane dimers in high yields at room temperature. Synthetic attributes of transformations of the resulting head-to-tail vinylsilane dimers and polymerization of bis(vinylsilane) were investigated.