Modelling nucleophilic substitution
at silicon with pentacoordinated amides
Pestunovich et al have performed theoretical quantum chemical calculations and obtained the X-ray crystal structures of a series of pentacoordinated amides.
By plotting together the calculated and experimentally obtained O-Si and SiCl bond distances in each complex, good agreement between theory and practice was found with a hyperbolic curve being obtained of increasing Si-Cl distance (y axis) with decreasing Si-O distance (x axis).