Structural characterization of TaMe3Cl2 and Ta(PMe3)2Me3Cl2, a pair of five and seven-coordinate d0 tantalum methyl compounds

The trimethylphosphine complex Ta(PMe(3))(2)Me(3)Cl(2) has been synthesized by addition of PMe(3) to TaMe(3)Cl(2). The molecular structures of both TaMe(3)Cl(2) and Ta(PMe(3))(2)Me(3)Cl(2) have been determined by X-ray diffraction thereby demonstrating that, in the solid state, these complexes respectively adopt trigonal bipyramidal and capped trigonal prismatic geometries.