Metal bis(trimethylsilyl)amides

Metal bis(trimethylsilyl)amides (often abbreviated as metal silylamides) are <a href="/facts/Coordination_complex/1tCyeQUm">coordination complexes</a> composed of a <a href="/facts/Cation/wrbwhF3z">cationic</a> metal M with <a href="/facts/Anion/wrbwhF3z">anionic</a> bis(trimethylsilyl)amide ligands (the −N(Si(CH3)3)2 <a href="/facts/Valence_(chemistry)/ck7cHByj">monovalent anion</a>, or −N(Si(CH3)3)2 monovalent group, and are part of a broader category of <a href="/facts/Metal_amides/NT6t03Q9">metal amides</a>.
Due to the bulky hydrocarbon backbone metal bis(trimethylsilyl)amide complexes have low lattice energies and are lipophilic. For this reason, they are soluble in a range of <a href="/facts/Solvent/LoMPMz8S">nonpolar organic solvents</a>, in contrast to simple metal halides, which only dissolve in reactive solvents. These <a href="/facts/Steric/TnX5c8HG">steric</a> bulky complexes are molecular, consisting of mono-, di-, and tetramers. Having a built-in base, these compounds conveniently react with even weakly protic reagents. The class of ligands and pioneering studies on their coordination compounds were described by Bürger and Wannagat.
The ligands are often denoted hmds (e.g. M(N(SiMe3)2)3 = M(hmds)3) in reference to the <a href="/facts/Bis(trimethylsilyl)amine/UD44qk5k">hexamethyldisilazane</a> from which they are prepared.

Metal bis(trimethylsilyl)amides open-in-new

Metal bis(trimethylsilyl)amides