The crystal and molecular structure of trimethyltin(IV) chloride, a chlorine-bridged, linear polymer

The crystal and molecular structure of trimethyltin(IV) chloride has been determined by the heavy-atom technique, and refined to a final R value of 0.041 for 1375 independent reflections (2θ < 53°; Mo-K_a radiation I > 2σ(I)) recorded at 138 ± 2 K on a Nonius CAD-4 counter diffractometer. The crystals are monoclinic with space group I2/c; a 12.541(8), b 9.618(11), c 11.015(11) Å, β 92.62(7)°, Z = 8, D_calcd 1.994 g cm⁻³. The needle crystals are composed of polymeric chains of chlorine atoms bridging non-planar trimethyltin(IV) units at unequal (2.430(2) and 3.269(2) Å) distances. The zig-zag chains are bent at chlorine (angle Sn---ClSn 150.30(9)°), but nearly linear at tin (angle Cl---SnCl 176.85(6)°) to describe a distorted trigonal bipyramidal geometry at tin with the trimethyltin groups eclipsed. The interchain d(SnCl) distances are greater than 4.1 Å. The angles carbon—tin—carbon (mean 117.1(3)°) are larger than tetrahedral, while the angles carbon—tin—chlorine (mean 99.9(2) Å) are smaller, in accord with isovalent hybridization principles, but more severely distorted than in the gas-phase, monomeric structure. The tin—chlorine distance of 2.430(2) Å is also longer than in the gas phase monomer, and the intermolecular contact of 3.269 Å is shorter than in other organotin chloride bridged systems (sum of Van der Waals radii 3.85 Å).