Molecular structures of dichloro(dimethyl)germane and trichloro(methyl)germane determined by vapour phase electron diffraction

Abstract

The molecular structures of dichloro(dimethyl)germane and trichloro(methyl)germane have been determined in the vapour phase by electron diffraction. The principal geometrical parameters for (CH3)2GeCl2 are rg(Ge—Cl) = 2.143 ± 0.004 Å, rg(Ge—C) = 1.928 ± 0.006 Å, [Formula: see text].and [Formula: see text] In the analysis of CH3GeGl3 recently reported values of the rotational constants were combined with the electron diffraction data to give rg(Ge—Cl) = 2.132 ± 0.003 Å, rg(Ge—C) = 1.893 ± 0.010 Å, [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]In both cases the methylgermane geometry was assumed for the methyl group [Formula: see text] which was fixed in the staggered configuration with respect to the C2GeCl2 and CGeCl3 frames respectively. Both random and systematic errors were included in the uncertainty estimates, which are believed to be approximately at the 95% confidence level. In the case of (CH3)2GeCl2 the uncertainties in [Formula: see text] were enlarged to four times the least-squares values in order to reflect the difficulty of resolving the Cl … Cl, C … Cl, and C … C distances in the analysis.