Triphenyllanthanoids Ph(3)Ln(THF)(3) (Ln = Er (1), Tm (2)) were synthe
sized in THF by reaction of metallic lanthanoids with Ph(2)Hg or Ph(3)
Bi in the presence of catalytic amounts of LnI(3). The X-ray diffracti
on studies of 1 and 2 have shown that these species represent monomeri
c complexes with a distorted fac-octahedral arrangement of ligands aro
und the Ln atom.