Chelating triarylgermyl anions as ligands in lanthanide chemistry: synthesis of Ln2 and the crystal structure of an unusual μ-(o-tolylene)digermane byproduct

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/0022-328X(94)05296-N

The synthesis of substituted triarylgermyl potassium reagents KGeAr3 and their reactions with YbI2 and SmI2 are described.Clean formation of Ln2 complexes is observed for Ar = C6H4(2-CH2NMe2) in which the lanthanide centre is six-coordinate with each germyl anion functioning as a tridentate ligand.Reaction of KGeAr3 with LnI2 did not produce Ln2 complexes cleanly.This failure was traced to competing metallation of the diethyl ether solvent.Crystals of a μ-o-tolylenedigermane byproduct were however isolated from the YbI2 reaction and crystallographically characterized.The latter compound represents the first example of the μ-o-phenylenedigermane class of compounds to be reported. Keywords: Germanium; Lithium; Samarium; Ytterbium; Lanthanides