TRANSITION-METAL DERIVATIVES OF LOW OXIDATION-STATE PHOSPHORUS OXOACIDS - SYNTHETIC PATHWAYS AND STRUCTURAL STUDIES

A general synthetic approach intended to rationalize the solution prep arative chemistry of transition metal phosphites and hypophosphites is presented. As previously shown for other derivatives containing also tetrahedral or pseudotetrahedral oxoan-ions, the hydrolytic processes affecting the cationic moieties play a determinant role on the very na ture of the final solid. In fact, despite the limited number of donor atoms in the anions, the crystal chemistry of these compounds is quite intricate because of both the variety of possible cationic aggregates and the many ways to interconnect them through pseudotetrahedral anio nic groups.