Synthetic Access to a Hydrocarbon-Soluble Trifluorinated Ge(II) Compound and its Sn(II) Congener

Trifluorinated germanium anions attracted
attention of theoretical
chemists already in the late 1990s to predict their physical and chemical
properties. However these species were not synthesized in the laboratory,
although substantial evidence for their existence was obtained from
the mass spectrometry of GeF4. The present study shows
that controlled fluorination of LMNMe2 (L = PhC­(NtBu)2, M = Ge, Sn) using HF·pyridine
in toluene leads to the formation of [LH2]+[MF3]− under elimination of HNMe2. The products contain the trifluorinated Ge­(II) and Sn­(II) anionic
species which are stabilized by interionic H···F bonds.
The new compounds were characterized by single crystal X-ray structural
analysis, NMR spectroscopy, and elemental analysis.