Proximity Enforced Agostic Interactions Involving Closed-Shell Coinage Metal Ions.

A proximity enforcing diarylsilane ligand is reported, which gives rise to unusual Si-H···M interactions with the d10 metal ions Cu+ and Ag+ upon complexation. These interactions are studied in detail both experimentally and computationally and can be classified to be weakly agostic in nature for the Si-H···Cu interaction. The Si-H···Ag interaction has more signatures of an electrostatic contact.