THE PREPARATION AND STRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION OF 3 STRUCTURAL TYPESOF GALLIUM COMPOUNDS DERIVED FROM GALLIUM(II) CHLORIDE

The three compounds Ga2Cl4(4-mepy)(2) (1),[GaCl2(4-mepy)(4)] GaCl4.1/2 (4-mepy) (2) and GaCl2(4-mepy)(2)(S2CNEt2) (3) (4-mepy = 4-methylpyrid ine) have been prepared from reactions of gallium(II) chloride in 4-me thylpyridine and characterized by single-crystal X-ray analysis. Small variations in the reaction conditions for gallium(II) chloride can pr oduce crystals with substantially different structural properties. The three compounds described here encompass a neutral gallium(II) dimer in which each gallium is four-coordinate, an ionic compound containing both anionic and cationic gallium complex ions with different coordin ation numbers and a neutral six-coordinate heteroleptic dialkyldithioc arbamate species.