Reactions of germanium(II), tin(II), and antimony(III) chlorides with acenaphthene-1,2-diimines

Reactions of diimines dtb-BIAN and dph-BIAN with GeCl₂ afford germanium(II) complexes with radical-anionic ligands, (dtb-BIAN)GeCl (5) and (dph-BIAN)GeCl (6a), respectively, where dtb-BIAN is 1,2-bis(2,5-di-tert-butylphenyl)imino]acenaphthene and dph-BIAN is 1,2-bis(2-biphenyl)imino]acenaphthene. The latter reaction gives 6a along with (dph-BIAN)GeCl]⁺GeCl₃]⁻ (6b). The reactions of tin(II) and antimony(III) chlorides with dtb-BIAN and dpp-BIAN produce complexes of these halides with neutral coordinated diimines, viz., (dtb-BIAN)SnCl₂ (7) and (dpp-BIAN)SbCl₃ (8) (dpp-BIAN is 1,2-bis(2,6-di-isopropylphenyl)imino]acenaphthene). Paramagnetic complexes 5 and 6a were studied by ESR spectroscopy. Diamagnetic compounds 7 and 8 were characterized by ¹H NMR spectroscopy. The structures of complexes 5, 6a,b, 7, 8, and (dpp-BIAN)Ge (9) were established by X-ray diffraction analysis. Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 1, pp. 71–80, January, 2006.