On the Nature of the Bonding in Metal-Silane sigma-Complexes
  The nature of metal silane sigma-bond interaction has been investigated in several key systems by a range of experimental and computational techniques. The structure of [Cp'Mn(CO)2(eta2-HSiHPh2)] 1 has been determined by single crystal neutron diffraction, and the geometry at the Si atom is shown to approximate to a trigonal bipyramid. This complex is similar to [Cp'Mn(CO)2(eta2-HSiFPh2)] 2, whose structure and bonding characteristics have recently been determined by charge density studies based on high-resolution X-ray and neutron diffraction data. The geometry at the Si atom in these sigma-bond complexes is compared with that in other systems containing hypercoordinate silicon. The Mn-H distances for 1 and 2 in solution have been estimated using NMR T1 relaxation measurements, giving a value of 1.56(3) AA in each case, in excellent agreement with the distances deduced from neutron diffraction. DFT calculations have been employed to explore the bonding in the Mn-H-Si unit in 1 and 2 and in the related system [Cp'Mn(CO)2(eta2-HSiCl3)] 3. These studies support the idea that the oxidative addition of a silane ligand to a transition metal center may be described as an asymmetric process in which the Mn-H bond is formed at an early stage, while both the establishment of the Mn-Si bond and also the activation of the eta2-coordinated Si-H moiety are controlled by the extent of Mn-> sigma*(X-Si-H) back-donation, which increases with increasing electronwithdrawing character of the X substituent trans to the metal-coordinated Si-H bond. This delocalized molecular orbital (MO) approach is complemented and supported by combined experimental and theoretical charge density studies including the source function S(r,Omega). 
G. Sean McGrady, Peter Sirsch, Nicholas P. Chatterton, Andreas   Ostermann, Carlo Gatti, Sandra Altmannshofer, Verena Herz, ...