Dynamic disorder in solid tetrakis(trimethylstannyl)methane, C(SnMe3)4, investigated by one- and two-dimensional variable-temperature 119Sn and 13C NMR spectroscopy

Modes of molecular reorientation in solid tetrakis(trimethylstannyl)methane, C(SnMe3)(4), have been investigated by one- and two-dimensional C-13 and Sn-119 static and magic-angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) in the temperature range from 150 to 290 K. Spectral lineshape fitting of one- and two-dimensional Sn-119 NMR experiments shows the pseudo-fivefold disorder previously observed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction on C(SnMe3)(4) to be dynamic disorder (activation energy E-a congruent to 32 kJ mol(-1)). A dynamic-disorder model where each tin atom in a C(SnMe3)(4) molecule occupies the twenty sites of a nearly perfect pentagonal dodecahedron with equal probability agrees best with the experimental solid-state NMR results.