Herein, we report the characterization of a novel germanium hydride radical arising from the photolysis/thermolysis of the diarylgermylene GeR2 [R = terphenyl: Ar = C6H3-2,6-(C6H3-2,6-Pr2)2 or Ar = C6H3-2,6-(C6H2-2,4,6-Pr3)2] by using electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy complemented with theoretical calculations. The trapped germanium radical is a pseudoplanar S = 1/2 germanium(III) hydride, i.e., •GeHRR' (R = Ar or Ar; R' is a quaternary carbon), with a g tensor of [2.029, 2.003, 1.990], a 73Ge hyperfine tensor of [-10, -90, -10] MHz, and a strong 1H hyperfine tensor of [-23.0, -20.5, -31.5] MHz for the hydride. The germanium(III) hydride radical is a result of the insertion of a germanium(I) radical intermediate (:ĠeR) in a C-H bond, due to the greater reactivity of the germanium(I) radical intermediate in comparison with the tin(I) counterpart that we trapped earlier.
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