“Women In Science & Engineering – KIRAN (WISE-KIRAN)” A Step Towards Gender Equity in STI

56-57Recognizing this challenge, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) has been actively engaging to remove the obstacles in participation of women in the field of S&T through gender enabling programs over the past two decades

Reactivity of Elemental Tin and Zinc toward Organophosphonic Acid Dialkyl Esters: A New One-Pot Recipe for the Synthesis of Coordination Assemblies Derived from <i>O</i>‑Alkylorganophosphonate Ligands

A new recipe for the synthesis of diorganotin bis­(<i>O</i>-alkylorganophosphonate)­s, R¹₂Sn­{O­(P)­(O)­(OR¹)­R}₂ [R = R¹ = methyl (<b>1</b>); R¹ = ethyl and R = methyl (<b>2</b>), allyl (<b>3</b>), 2-thienyl (<b>4</b>), benzyl (<b>5</b>)], has been developed from the direct reaction of elemental tin (powder) with organophosphonic acid dialkyl esters, RP­(O)­(OR¹)₂, in the presence of a catalytic amount of potassium iodide under ambient conditions (130 °C, 18–20 h). The key steps in the proposed catalytic cycle involve the monodealkylation of phosphonate diester and in situ generation of a R¹SnI or R¹₂SnI₂ intermediate via the oxidative addition of alkyl iodide on tin. Evidence in support of the formation of organotin species comes from the isolation of Me₂Sn­{O­(P)­(O)­(O^<i>i</i>Pr)­Me}₂ (<b>6</b>) from the direct reaction of tin metal with MeP­(O)­(O^<i>i</i>Pr)₂ in the presence of methyl iodide. The method has also been extended to isolate Zn­{OP­(O)­(OMe)­Me}₂ (<b>7</b>) using metallic zinc as the precursor. All of the compounds have been characterized by IR and NMR studies as well as X-ray crystallography for <b>2</b>, <b>4</b>, <b>6</b>, and <b>7</b>