Dihydrosilanes tethered with two thioether moieties, [2-(RSCH2)C6H4]2SiH2(1a: R = t-Bu; 1b: R = i-Pr; 1c: R = Ph), were synthesized. Dihydrosilane 1b did not react with methanol, benzaldehyde, and carboxylic acids; this result may suggest very weak activation of the SiH bonds in 1b. The corresponding dibromosilanes 4 and diiodosilanes 5 were synthesized by dihalogenation of 1 using N-bromosuccinimide and I2, respectively, whereas the dichlorosilanes 3 were synthesized by reaction of 2-(RSCH2)C6H4 Li with SiCl4. Reaction of 1b with [PtCl2 (cod)] in the presence of Et3N gave the corresponding bissilylplatinum complex, [Pt{SiH[2-(RSCH2)- C6H4]2}2], the structure of which was determined by NMR and IR spectrometry and X-ray crystallography. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 22:438–445, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/hc.20706