Soft scorpionate coordination at alkali metals

Reported here are the single‐crystal X‐ray structure analyses of bis‐μ‐methanol‐κ⁴O:O‐bis{hydrotris(3‐phenyl‐2‐sulfanylidene‐2,3‐dihydro‐1H‐1,3‐imidazol‐1‐yl)borato‐κ³H,S,S′](methanol‐κO)sodium(I)}, Na₂(C₂₇H₂₂BN₆S₃)₂(CH₄O)₄] (NaTm^Ph), bis‐μ‐methanol‐κ⁴O:O‐bis{hydrotris(3‐isopropyl‐2‐sulfanylidene‐2,3‐dihydro‐1H‐1,3‐imidazol‐1‐yl)borato‐κ³H,S,S′](methanol‐κO)sodium(I)}–diethyl ether–methanol (1/0.3333/0.0833), Na₂(C₁₈H₂₈BN₆S₃)₂(CH₄O)₄]·0.3333C₄H₁₀O·0.0833CH₃OH (NaTm^iPr), and a novel anhydrous form of sodium hydrotris(methylthioimidazolyl)borate, polyμ‐hydrotris(3‐methyl‐2‐sulfanylidene‐2,3‐dihydro‐1H‐1,3‐imidazol‐1‐yl)borato]sodium(I)], Na(C₁₂H₁₆BN₆S₃)] (NaTm^Me]_n). NaTm^iPr and NaTm^Ph have similar dimeric molecular structures with κ³H,S,S′‐bonding, but they differ in that NaTm^Ph is crystallographically centrosymmetric (Z′ = 0.5) while NaTm^iPr contains one crystallographically centrosymmetric dimer and one dimer positioned on a general position (Z′ = 1.5). NaTm^Me]_n is a one‐dimensional coordination polymer that extends along the a direction and which contains a hitherto unseen side‐on η²‐C=S‐to‐Na bond type. An overview of the structural preferences of alkali metal soft scorpionate complexes is presented. This analysis suggests that these thione‐based ligands will continue to be a rich source of interesting alkali metal motifs worthy of isolation and characterization.