Structural diversity in organotin compounds derived from bulky monoaryl phosphates: dimeric, tetrameric, and polymeric tin phosphate complexes

Abstract

Monoaryl phosphates with a bulky aryl substituent have been used to synthesize new organotin clusters and polymers. The equimolar reaction between 2,6-diisopropylphenylphosphate (dipp-H2) and Me2SnCl2 in ethanol at 25 °C leads to the formation of [Me2Sn(μ3-dipp)]n (1), while the reaction of 2,6-dimethylphenylphosphate (dmpp-H2) with Me2SnCl2 in either a 1:1 or 2:1 molar ratio proceeds to produce exclusively [Me2Sn(μ-dmpp-H)2]n.nH2O (2). Compounds 1 and 2 are 1D polymers with different architectures. In compound 1, the tin atom is five-coordinate (trigonal bipyramidal). Each dipp ligand bridges three different tin atoms to form an infinite ladder-chain structure. In 2, each six-coordinate (octahedral) tin atom is surrounded by four phosphate oxygen atoms originating from four different bridging dmpp-H ligands, thus forming a spirocyclic coordination polymeric chain. The use of nBu2SnO as the diorganotin source in its reaction with dipp-H2 leads to the isolation of dimeric [nBu2Sn(μ-dipp-H)(dipp-H)]2 (4), which contains a central Sn2O4P2 unit. There are two chemically different half molecules of 4 in the asymmetric part of the unit cell and hence it actually exists as a 1:1 mixture of [nBu2Sn(μ-dipp-H)(dipp-H)]2 and [nBu2Sn(μ-dipp)(dipp-H2)]2 in the solid state. The reaction of the monoorgano tin precursor nBuSn(O)(OH)·xH2O with dipp-H2 takes place in acetone at room temperature to yield the tetrameric cluster 5, which has different structures in the solution and in the solid state. 31P NMR spectroscopy clearly suggests that 5 has the formula [nBu4Sn4(μ-O)2((μ-dipp-H)8] in solution. The single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies in the solid state, however, reveal that compound 5 exists as [nBu4Sn4(μ-OH)2(μ-dipp-H)6(μ-dipp)2]. The use of compounds 1-4 as possible precursors for the preparation of ceramic tin phosphate materials has been investigated. The thermolysis of 1 at 500 °C leads to the formation of quantitative amounts of Sn2P2O7, while the thermolysis of 2, 3, and 4 under similar conditions results in the formation of SnP2O7