Rare earth arylsilazido compounds with inequivalent secondary interactions.

A new bulky silazido ligand, -N(SiHMe2)Dipp (Dipp = C6H3-2,6-iPr2), supports planar, three-coordinate homoleptic rare earth complexes Ln{N(SiHMe2)Dipp}3 (Ln = Sc, Y, and Lu), each containing three secondary Ln↼HSi interactions and one agostic CH bond. Y{N(SiHMe2)Dipp}3 and acetophenone react via hydrosilylation, rather than by insertion into the Y-N bond or by enolate formation.