
Restricted Hartree-Fock ab initio calculations have been performed on various isomers of silacyclobutadiene (C3SiH 4). Geometry optimizations were performed by using various basis sets. Geometric results were similar, but proper description of relative energies required the larger 6-31G* basis. Calculations treating election correlation at the MP2 level were performed on the seven lowest energy structures. These calculations gave similar results. The most stable species found is 2-methylsilacycloprop-2-en-1-ylidene. Silacyclobutadiene is almost 60 kcal mol- 1 less stable, while silatetrahedrane lies a further 32 kcal mol-1 higher in energy. The most stable isomer with normal valence is 2-silabut-1-en-3-yne, 28.2 kcal mol-1 above the global energy minimum.
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