THE 1ST STRUCTURALLY AUTHENTICATED DIVALENT LANTHANIDE STANNYL DERIVATIVE

The reaction between YbI2 and K[Sn(CH2Bu(t))3] affords the diamagnetic ytterbium bis-stannyl derivative [Yb(SnNep3)2(thf)2] 1 (Nep = 2,2-dimethylpropyl and thf = tetrahydrofuran) which has been characterised by multinuclear NMR spectroscopy (Sn-119 and Yb-171) and X-ray crystallography: reaction of 1 with two equivalents of ArOH (ArOH = 2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-methylphenol) or C5Me5H results in the elimination of Sn(CH2Bu(t))3H to afford the known complexes [Yb(OAr)2(thf)2] and [Yb(C5Me5)2(thf)2] respectively whereas the reaction with one equivalent of ArOH or C5Me5 results in the formation of the novel mixed ligand complexes [Yb(OAr){Sn(CH2Bu(t))3}(thf)2] and [Yb(C5Me5){(Sn(CH2Bu(t))3}(thf)2].