title: Thallium(I) sandwich, multidecker, and ether complexes stabilized by weakly-coordinating anions: a spectroscopic, structural, and theoretical investigation.
abstract: The reaction of thallium ethoxide with [H(OEt2)2][H2N{B(C6F5)3}2] in diethyl ether afforded [Tl(OEt2)3][H2N{B(C6F5)3}2] (2a), [Tl(OEt2)4][H2N{B(C6F5)3}2] (2b), or [Tl(OEt2)2][H2N{B(C6F5)3}2].CH2Cl2 (2c), depending on the reaction conditions. The dication in the hydrolysis product [Tl4(mu3-OH)2][H2N{B(C6F5)3}2]2.4CH2Cl2 consists of two bridging and two terminal Tl+ ions bound to triply bridging hydroxides. Heating Et2O complexes in toluene afforded [Tl(eta6-toluene)n][H2N{B(C6F5)3}2] (4, n = 2, 3), while C6Me6 addition gave the first thallium-C6Me6 adduct, [Tl(eta6-C6Me6)2][H2N{B(C6F5)3}2].1.5CH2Cl2 (5a), a bent sandwich complex with very short Tl...centroid distances. These arene complexes show no close contacts between cations and anions. Displacement of toluene ligands by ferrocene gave [Tl2(FeCp2)3][H2N{B(C6F5)3}2]2.5CH2Cl2 (6) which contains the multidecker cations [Tl(FeCp2)]+ and [Tl(FeCp2)2]+ in a 1:1 ratio. By contrast, decamethylferrocene leads to electron transfer; the isolable thallium-ferrocene complexes may therefore be viewed as precursor complexes for this redox step. With 18-crown-6 the complexes [Tl(18-crown-6)2][H2N{B(C6F5)3}2] (11a) and [Tl(18-crown-6)][H2N{B(C6F5)3}2].2CH2Cl2 (11b) were isolated. The structure of the latter shows an eight-coordinate thallium ion, where the coordination to the six oxygen donors in equatorial positions is completed by axial contacts to two F atoms of the counter anions. The bonding between thallium(I) and arenes was explored by density-functional theory (DFT) calculations. The optimized geometry of [Tl(tol)3]+ converged to a structure very similar to that obtained experimentally. Calculations on [Tl(C6Me6)2]+ (5b) to establish whether a linear or bent geometry is the most stable revealed a very flat potential-energy surface for distortions of the Ctr(3)-Tl-Ctr(4) angle. Overall, there is very little energetic preference for one particular geometry over another above about 140 degrees , in good agreement with the crystallographic geometry. The calculated Tl-arene interaction energies increase from 73.7 kJ mol-1 for toluene to 121.7 kJ mol-1 for C6Me6.
authors.affiliation: Wolfson Materials and Catalysis Centre, School of Chemical Sciences and Pharmacy, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK.
authors.forename: Yann
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sarazin
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.forename: Nikolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kaltsoyannis
authors.forename: Joseph A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bochmann
mesh_terms: D000838:Anions / Q000737:chemistry; D001896:Boron Compounds / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D004986:Ether / Q000737:chemistry; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009942:Organometallic Compounds / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D013057:Spectrum Analysis
chemical_list: D000838:Anions; D001896:Boron Compounds; D009942:Organometallic Compounds; D004986:Ether; C062376:thallous ethoxide