Synthesis and thermal transformations of molecular complexes of bis[tris(trifluoromethyl)germyl]mercury(ii witho-quinones

Stable molecular complexes of bistris(trifluoromethyl)germyl]mercury(II) Hg(CF₃)₃Ge]₂ (1) witho-quinones (3,6-di-tert-butylbenzoquinone-1,2 (2), 3,6-di-tert-butyl-4,5-dimethoxybenzoquinone-1,2 (3), and 1,4,5,7-tetra-tert-butyldibenzo1,4]dioxin-2,3-dione (4)) have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis and IR and electronic absorption spectroscopies. Depending on the ratio between the starting reactants, the reactions ofo-quinones with1 gave complexes of the composition R₂Hg · Q (5,7,9) or R₂Hg · Q₂ (6,8,10), where Q=2 (5,6),3 (7,8),4 (9,10); R=Ge(CF₃)₃. According to the spectral data, the molecule ofo-quinone in R₂Hg · Q acts as a neutral ligand, whereas the second molecule ofo-quinone in R₂Hg · Q₂ is not coordinated to1. It has been found by ESR that thermolysis of polycrystalline samples of complexes6 and10 involves intermediate formation of radical pairs and finally yields paramagnetico-semiquinone complexes, SQGe(CF₃)₃, which are typical products of one-electron oxidation of Organometallic compounds byo-quinones.Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 8, pp. 1568–1573, August, 1995.The authors wish to thank M. A. Lopatin for his help in recording the electronic absorption spectra.This work was carried out with financial support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Project No. 93-03-18369).