SYNTHETIC STUDIES ON ANTIMONY AND BISMUTH COMPLEXES CONTAINING THE NI(CO) (ETA-C5ME5) FRAGMENT

The reaction between either SbCl3 or BiCl3 and three equivalents of Na [Ni (CO)(eta-C5Me5)] affords the trinickel-element complexes [E{Ni(CO) (eta-C5Me5)}3] (E = Sb, Bi). With two equivalents of Na[Ni(CO)(eta-C5M e5)], the dinickel complexes [ECl{Ni(CO)(eta-C5Me5)}2] (E = Sb, Bi) ar e formed in solution, via the intermediacy of the trinickel compounds, although attempts to isolate these species led, in the case of bismut h, to the cluster compounds [Bi2Ni2(eta-C5Me5)2] and [BiNi3(eta-C5Me5) 3]. All compounds were characterized by spectroscopic and analytical m ethods. Analogous reactions involving GaCl3 and InCl3 led only to intr actable mixtures from which no pure compounds could be isolated. The r eaction between Te(S2CNEt2)2 and two equivalents of Na[Ni(CO)(eta-C5Me 5)] resulted not in a nickel-tellurium complex, but in the complex [Ni (S2CNEt2)(eta-C5Me5)], which was characterized by X-ray crystallograph y.