A versatile salt-metathesis route to heteroatomic clusters derived from phosphorus and arsenic Zintl anions.

Knapp CM, Large JS, Rees NH, Goicoechea JM

Salt metathesis reactions between ethylenediamine (en) solutions of the K(3)E(7) (E = P, As) Zintl phases and post-transition metal halides (InCl(3), TlCl, SnI(2) and PbI(2)) have yielded a family of novel heteroatomic cluster anions, [In(E(7))(2)](3-), [TlE(7)](2-) and [E'E(15)](3-) (E' = Sn, Pb; E = P, As). Several of these new species have been characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction as salts of sequestered potassium cations in [K(2,2,2-crypt)](3)[In(P(7))(2)]·3.5py (1), [K(2,2,2-crypt)](2)[TlP(7)]·py (3), [K(18-crown-6)](2)[TlAs(7)] (4b), [K(2,2,2-crypt)](3)[E'P(15)]·en (E' = Sn (5), Pb (6)) and [K(2,2,2-crypt)](3)[SnAs(15)]·2en (7). The presence of all of the cluster anions in solution was confirmed by electrospray mass-spectrometry and by (1)H and (31)P{(1)H} NMR spectroscopy when pertinent.