Structure of the telluroketone TeC(PPh2NSiMe3)2 coordinated to an Li8O6 cluster

The reaction of Li2[C(PPh2NSiMe3)2] with elemental tellurium in THF was carried out in an attempt to generate the tellurocarbonyl dianion [TeC(PPh2NSiMe3)2]2− as the dilithium derivative. This thermally unstable tridentate ligand was characterized by 31P and 7Li NMR spectroscopy. Attempted recrystallization gave yellow crystals, which were shown by X-ray crystallography to be a neutral, centrosymmetric complex comprised of two molecules of the novel telluroketone [TeC(PPh2NSiMe3)2] stabilized by N,Te,N coordination to LiOLi units of the rhombic dodecahedral cluster [Li8(μ5-O)2(μ5-OH)4(C4H8O)4].

Graphical abstractThe title compound is obtained as a centrosymmetric dimer comprised of two molecules of the telluroketone TeC(PPh2NSiMe3)2 which are N,Te,N-coordinated to two LiOLi units of the neutral dimeric Li8O6 cluster [Li8(μ5-O)2(μ5-OH)4(C4H8O)4].Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide