Self-assembled antimony-thiolate Sb₂L₃ and Sb₂L₂Cl₂ complexes

Issue title: Papers presented at the ‘Early Main Group Metal Chemistry’ symposium as part of the Pacifichem 2005 conference. Honolulu, Hawaii, December 15th- 20th, 2005.

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Jake Vickaryous, W. | Zakharov, Lev N. | Johnson, Darren W.

Affiliations: Department of Chemistry, University of Oregon and the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI), Oregon, USA

Note: [] Corresponding author. E-mail: dwj@uoregon.edu

Abstract: The synthesis and single crystal X-ray structures of two new self-assembled antimony(III)-thiolate complexes are described: Sb2L3 (1) and “anti”-Sb2L2Cl2 (2), where H2L is α,α′-dimercaptoxylene. The Sb(III) ions in both complexes exhibit tripodal coordination geometries with stereochemically-active lone pairs. The extended structure of 1 in the crystalline state reveals numerous C–H···S interactions, while the packing in 2 is dominated by numerous antimony-sulfur and antimony-chlorine secondary bonding interactions. These structures demonstrate that a supramolecular design strategy can be developed to prepare self-assembled structures based on the coordination geometry of Sb(III) and the reversible formation of antimony-thiolate bonds in solution. This strategy offers promise in the specific chelation of toxic ions such as antimony, a contaminant of increasing environmental concern.

Keywords: Antimony-arene interactions, Antimony compounds, Coordination chemistry, Pnictogens, Supramolecular chemistry, Thiolate ligands

DOI: 10.1080/10241220600857710

Journal: Main Group Chemistry, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 51-59, 2006