A Sterically Accessible Monomeric Stibine Oxide Activates Organotetrel(IV) Halides, Including C-F and Si-F Bonds

Phosphine oxides and arsine oxides are common laboratory reagents with diverse applications that stem from the chemistry exhibited by these monomeric species. Stibine oxides are, in contrast, generally dimeric or oligomeric species because of the reactivity-quenching self-association of the highly polarized stiboryl (Sb=O/Sb+-O-) group. We recently isolated Dipp3SbO (Dipp = 2,6-diisopropylphenyl), the first example of a kinetically stabilized monomeric stibine oxide, which exists as a bench-stable solid and bears an unperturbed stiboryl group. Herein, we report the isolation of Mes3SbO (Mes = mesityl), in which the less bulky substituents maintain the monomeric nature of the compound but unlock access to a wider range of reactivity at the unperturbed stiboryl group relative to Dipp3SbO. Mes3SbO was found to be a potent Lewis base in the formation of adducts with the main-group Lewis acids PbMe3Cl and SnMe3Cl. The accessible Lewis acidity at the Sb atom results in a change in the reactivity with GeMe3Cl, SiMe3Cl, and CPh3Cl. With these species, Mes3SbO formally adds the E-Cl (E = Ge, Si, C) bond across the unsaturated stiboryl group to form a 5-coordinate stiborane. The biphilicity of Mes3SbO is sufficiently potent to activate even the C-F and Si-F bonds of C(p-MeOPh)3F and SiEt3F, respectively. These results mark a significant contribution to an increasingly rich literature on the reactivity of polar, unsaturated main-group motifs. Furthermore, these results highlight the utility of a kinetic stabilization approach to access unusual bonding motifs with unquenched reactivity that can be leveraged for small-molecule activation.

Tetra-kis(2,4,6-tri-methyl-anilido)tin(IV)

Transamination of Sn(NMe2)4 with H2NMes (Mes is 2,4,6-tri-methyl-phenyl, C9H11) led to the formation of the title compound, [Sn(C9H12N)4] or Sn(NHMes)4, which crystallizes in the tetra-gonal space group P 21 c, with four formula units per unit cell. The mol-ecular structure consists of a central tin(IV) atom, which is surrounded by four NHMes groups. Sn(NHMes)4 possesses crystallographically imposed symmetry. The SnN4 coordination polyhedron is best described as a compressed bis-phenoid.

Capturing Deuteration Effects in a Molecular Mechanics Force Field: Deuterated THF and the THF-Water Miscibility Gap

Deuteration is a common chemical modification used in conjunction with experiments such as neutron scattering, NMR, and Fourier-transform infrared for the study of molecular systems. Under the Born-Oppenheimer (BO) approximation, while the underlying potential energy surface remains unchanged by isotopic substitutions, isotopic substitution still alters intramolecular vibrations, which in turn may alter intermolecular interactions. Molecular mechanics (MM) force fields used in classical molecular dynamics simulations are assumed to represent local approximations of the BO potential energy surfaces, and hence, MD simulations using simple isotopic mass substitutions should capture BO-compatible isotope effects. However, standard MM force-field parameterizations do not directly fit to the local harmonic quantum mechanical (QM) Hessian that describes the BO surface, but rather to QM normal-modes and/or mass-dependent internal-coordinate derived distortion energies. Here, using tetrahydrofuran (THF)-water mixtures as our model system, we show that not only does a simple mass-substitution approach fail to capture an experimentally characterized deuteration effect (the loss of the closed-loop miscibility gap associated with the complete deuteration of THF) but also it is necessary to generate new MM force-field parameters that correctly describe isotopic dependent vibrations to capture the experimental deuteration effect. We show that the origin of this failure is a result of using mass-dependent features to fit the THF MM force field, which unintentionally biases the bonded terms of the force field to represent only the isotopologue used during the original force-field parameterization. In addition, we make use of our isotopologue-corrected force field for D₈THF to examine the molecular origins of the isotope-dependent loss of the THF-water miscibility gap.

Syntheses, structures and anti-tumor activity of four organotin(iv) dicarboxylates based on (1,3,4-thiadiazole-2,5-diyldithio)diacetic acid

Four novel organotin complexes, derived from flexible (1,3,4-thiadiazole-2,5-diyldithio)diacetic acid (H₂tzda), have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR, NMR and X-ray crystallography.

Preparation of single-site tin(IV) compounds and their use in the polymerization of ε-caprolactone

Butyltin(IV) carboxylate compounds were obtained by reactions of butyltrichlorotin(IV) with potassium pivalate, perfluoroheptanoate, methacrylate, 2,6-pyridinedicarboxylate, and phthalate. The synthesized complexes were fully characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-, 13C-NMR), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), mass spectroscopies (MS) and elemental analysis. These tin complexes were used as catalysts for the ring opening polymerization of ε-caplolactone and the conversion of monomers to polymers was completed in just 1 h. The structures of polymers were characterized by a combination of spectroscopic techniques (NMR, FTIR, MS), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and gel permeation chromatography. In this study, the ε-caplolactone polymers with different average molecular weights between 5000 and 40,000 Da having a regular structure were obtained.