Synthesis and structures of triphenylbismuth diaroxides Ph3Bi(OAr)2, Ar = C6H3(Br2-2,4), C6H2(Br2-2,6)(NO2-4), and C6H2[(NO2)3-2,4,6]

Triphenylbismuth diaroxides Ph₃Bi(OAr)₂ (Ar = C₆H₃(Br₂-2,4) (I), C₆H₂(Br₂-2,6)(NO₂-4) (II), and C₆H₂(NO₂)₃-2,4,6] (III) are synthesized in yields up to 74% by the reaction of triphenylbismuth with phenols in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (taken at a molar ratio 1: 2: 1, respectively) in ether. According to X-ray diffraction data, the bismuth atoms in compounds I-III have distorted trigonal-bipyramidal coordination with the aroxyl substituents in the axial positions; the Bi-C, Bi-O bond lengths and the OBiO, CBiC angles vary in the intervals 2.162–2.204, 2.150–2.299 ? and 172.4°–176.1°, 109.6°–139.9°, respectively. Compound II exhibits intramolecular contacts between the central atom and ortho-Br atoms (3.924, 4.101 ?), and compound III has similar contacts of the Bi atom with the O atoms of the ortho-nitro groups (3.114, 3.313 ?). Original Russian Text ? V.V. Sharutin, I.V. Egorova, O.K. Sharutina, A.P. Pakusina, M.A. Pushilin, 2007, published in Koordinatsionnaya Khimiya, 2007, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 14–21.