Synthesis and characterization of sterically encumbered aluminum thiolato complexes with rare Al/S/halide structural motifs

Molecular Main Group Metal Hydrides

This review serves to document advances in the synthesis, versatile bonding, and reactivity of molecular main group metal hydrides within Groups 1, 2, and 12-16. Particular attention will be given to the emerging use of said hydrides in the rapidly expanding field of Main Group element-mediated catalysis. While this review is comprehensive in nature, focus will be given to research appearing in the open literature since 2001.

μ-Methyl-ene-bis-[di-bromido(diethyl ether-κO)aluminium(III)]: crystal structure and chemical exchange in solution

The crystal structure of μ-methyl­ene-bis­[(di­bromo)(diethyl ether-κO)aluminium(III)] has established that the Al—CH₂—Al angle, 118.4 (2)°, is the smallest observed for structure where this moiety is not part of a ring.

In the title compound, [Al₂Br₄(CH₂)(C₄H₁₀O)₂], the mol­ecule lies on a crystallographic twofold axis passing through the bridging C atom. Each Al^III atom is four-coordinate, being bonded to two bromide ions, bridging the CH₂ group as well as the oxygen atom of a diethyl ether ligand in a slightly distorted tetra­hedral arrangement with angles ranging from 101.52 (8) to 116.44 (5)°. The Al—CH₂—Al angle, 118.4 (2)°, is the smallest observed for a structure where this moiety is not part of a ring. In the crystal, weak C—H⋯Br inter­actions, characterized as R²₂(12) rings, link the mol­ecules into ribbons in the [101] direction. The title compound is monomeric and coordinatively saturated in the solid state, as each aluminum is four-coordinate, but in solution the ether mol­ecules from either or both Al atoms can dissociate, and would be expected to rapidly exchange, and this is supported by NMR data.