m solution of butyllithium in hexane 4 68 ml 7 51 mmol the solution was stirred at room temperature for 5 h the solvent was removed under vacuum and the residue was washed twice with 20 ml of dry pentane the 2 methyl 7 phenylindenyllithium was dried under vacuum dissolved in 30 ml of dry diethyl ether and 5 ml of dry thf and then added dropwise to 2 00 g 7 51 mmol of 9 chlorodimethylsilyl 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 octahydrofluorene prepared according to the method described by marks et al organometallics 1997 16 2503 in 20 ml of dry diethyl ether at u2212 78 u00b0 c the mixture was allowed to warm to room temperature and stirred overnight to give a yellow suspension which was hydrolyzed with aqueous nh 4 cl the organic phase was separated and the aqueous layer was extracted with ether the combined organic phases were dried mgso 4 filtered and the solvent was removed the oily residue was crystallized from 100 ethanol to give 1 85 g of 1 2 methyl 4 phenyl indenyl 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 octahydrofluorenyl dimethylsilane 56 the compound was an oily solid that did not display a true melting point 1 h nmr cdcl 3 u03b4 7 52 7 15 m 8 h arom 6 79.