Ultraviolet photolysis of 1,2-dimethyldisilane in the gas phase

The formation of MeSiH is the primary process in the photolysis of 1,2-dimethyldisilane at 193 nm that are analogues of carbenes. Gas chromatographic technique was used with a flame ionization detector as an analysis tool to identify the products mixture. The photolysis light at 193 nm was provided by an Oxford KX2 pulsed laser operated with rare-gas halide (known as an excimer laser) as the gain medium to provide ultraviolet (UV) radiation. This work has confirmed that radical processes are not important in the photolysis of 1,2-dimethyldisilane. A method for the determination of rate constants for MeSiH reactions relative to the rate constants of 1,2-dimethyldisilane has been formulated. This has been used to determine some relative rate constants of MeSiH insertions with methylsilanes. The insertion reactions of MeSiH with SiH(4) and Methysilanes have shown to be fast and closer in reactivity to SiH(2) than to SiMe(2), whereas PhSiH looks to be slightly more reactive than MeSiH.