The activation of sulfur hexafluoride at highly reduced low-coordinate nickel dinitrogen complexes.
The greenhouse gas sulfur hexafluoride is the common standard example in the literature of a very inert inorganic small molecule that is even stable against O2 in an electric discharge. However, a reduced β-diketiminate nickel species proved to be capable of converting SF6 into sulfide and fluoride compounds at ambient standard conditions. The fluoride product complex features an unprecedented [NiF](+) unit, where the Ni atom is only three-coordinate, while the sulfide product exhibits a rare almost linear [Ni(μ-S)Ni](2+) moiety. The reaction was monitored applying (1)H NMR, IR and EPR spectroscopic techniques resulting in the identification of an intermediate nickel complex that gave insight into the mechanism of the eight-electron reduction of SF6.
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Chemie, Brook-Taylor-Strasse 2, 12489 Berlin (Germany) http://www.chemie.hu-berlin.de/aglimberg/
Patrick
P
Holze
Bettina
B
Horn
Christian
C
Limberg
Corinna
C
Matlachowski
Stefan
S
Mebs
N ligands; coordination chemistry; fluoride; small-molecule activation; sulfur