Structural diversity among some dialkyltin(IV) benzoate and related derivatives

Abstract

The molecular structures of five diorganotin(IV) carboxylates, (I)–(V), can be categorized into two main well-known structural types for such Sn complexes. One is the mononuclear dialkytin(IV) carboxylates with an [R2Sn(LH)2]-type skew-trapezoidal bipyramid, where the alkyl ligands are in pseudo-axial positions and the O atoms from two asymmetrically coordinated bidentate carboxylate ligands are in the equatorial plane. This structure type is adopted by dibutylbis{(E)-2-hydroxy-5-[(3-methylphenyl)diazenyl]benzoato}tin(IV) cyclohexane hemisolvate, [Sn(C4H9)2(C14H11N2O3)2]·0.5C6H12, (I), dibenzylbis{(E)-5-[(4-bromophenyl)diazenyl]-2-hydroxybenzoato}tin(IV), [Sn(C7H7)2(C13H8BrN2O3)2], (II), and aquadibenzylbis(4-{(E)-[(Z)-4-hydroxypent-3-en-2-ylidene]amino}benzoato)tin(IV) benzene disolvate, [Sn(C7H7)2(C12H12NO3)2(H2O)]·2C6H6, (III), although the latter has an additional water ligand to give a distorted pentagonal bipyramidal coordination geometry in which the carboxylate groups are more symmetrically coordinated to the Sn atom than in (I) and (II). The other structure motif is that of the tetranuclear bis(dicarboxylatotetraorganodistannoxanes), {[R2Sn(LH)]2O}2, which contain an Sn4O2 core decorated with four bridging carboxylate ligands, plus two alkyl ligands at each SnIV centre. The complexes octabutyltetrakis{μ-(E)-4-[(4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethylphenyl)diazenyl]benzoato}di-μ3-oxido-tetratin(IV) ethanol disolvate, [Sn4(C4H9)8(C15H13N2O3)4O2]·2C2H6O, (IV), and octabutyltetrakis{(E)-3-[(2-hydroxybenzylidene)amino]propanoato}di-μ3-oxido-tetratin(IV), [Sn4(C4H9)8(C10H10NO3)4O2], (V), display this motif. The structures obtained correlate with the 1:1 and 1:2 stoichiometric ratios of the dialkyltin(IV) and carboxylic acid starting materials in the syntheses. The supramolecular structures arising from consideration of secondary Sn...O interactions and/or classic hydrogen bonds include discrete molecules for (V), centrosymmetric dimers for (I), extended chains for (II) and (III), and sheets for (IV).