Homoleptic coinage metal compounds of group(IV)heteroborates

Abstract

This article describes the synthesis and characterization of the first silver complex with the germylene [GeB11H11](2-) and coinage metal complexes with the stannylene ligand [SnB11H11](2-). Starting materials like CuCl, AuCl(Me2S), and AgNO3 were used to give mononuclear (3 and 4), dinuclear (5), hexanuclear (6), and heptanuclear (7) coordination compounds: [Et4N]5[Cu(CH3CN)(SnB11H11)3] (3), [Et4N]5[Ag(SnB11H11)3] (4), [Et4N]6[{Au(SnB11H11)2}2] (5), [Et4N]6[{Ag(GeB11H11)}6] (6), and [Et4N]9[Ag7(SnB11H11)8] (7). In case of the oligonuclear compounds 5-7 silver and gold aggregation was observed under formation of metal-metal bonds. Furthermore, the germa-closo-dodecaborate is found in a hitherto unknown μ3-bridging coordination mode connecting three silver atoms. The new compounds were characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction and in the case of 3-6 also by NMR spectroscopy and elemental analysis.