OCO and NCO chelated derivatives of heavier group 15 elements. Study on possibility of cyclization reaction via intramolecular ether bond cleavage.

A set of four pincer ligands, either the OCO type ligands L(1-3) [2,6-(ROCH(2))(2)C(6)H(3)](-), where R = Me (L(1)), mesityl (L(2)), t-Bu (L(3)) or novel NCO ligand [2-(Me(2)NCH(2))-6-(t-BuOCH(2))C(6)H(3)](-) was studied. The reaction of L(4)Li with PCl(3) resulted in isolation of [2-(OCH(2))-6-(Me(2)NCH(2))C(6)H(3)]PCl (1) as a result of intramolecular ether bond cleavage and elimination of t-BuCl. The conversion between the organolithium compounds L(1,2,4)Li and AsCl(3) led to the desired chlorides, i.e. (L(1))(2)AsCl (2), L(2)AsCl(2) (3), L(4)AsCl(2) (5), but an analogous reaction using the L(3)Li compound gave [2-(OCH(2))-6-(t-BuOCH(2))C(6)H(3)]AsCl (4) as a result of intramolecular cyclization. The organoantimony chloride L(3)SbCl(2) was shown to undergo very slow cyclization in CDCl(3) again via elimination of t-BuCl giving [2-(OCH(2))-6-(t-BuOCH(2))C(6)H(3)]SbCl (6) and it was demonstrated that this reaction may be accelerated by preparation of L(3)Sb(Cl)(OTf) (7) with more Lewis acidic central atom. On the contrary, both antimony derivatives of the NCO ligand L(4), not only the chloride L(4)SbCl(2) (8) but also the ionic pair containing highly Lewis acidic cation [L(4)SbCl](+)[CB(11)H(12)](-) (9), are stable without any indication for etheral bond cleavage. The situation is rather similar in the case of organobismuth derivatives of L(4), which allowed isolation of compounds L(4)BiCl(2) (10), L(4)Bi(Cl)(OTf) (11) and [L(4)BiCl](+)[CB(11)H(12)](-) (12). All studied compounds were characterized by the help of (1)H and (13)C NMR spectroscopy, ESI mass spectrometry, elemental analysis and (except 1) by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2011