Transfer of polyantimony units.

Transfer reagents are useful tools in chemistry to access metastable compounds. The reaction of [Cp''ZrCl] with KSb(SiMe) leads to the formation of the novel polyantimony triple decker complex [(Cp''Zr)(μ,η-Sb)] (, Cp'' = 1,3-di-tertbutyl-cyclopentadienyl), containing a chair-like Sb ligand. Compound represents a valuable transfer reagent to form novel antimony ligand complexes. Thus, the reaction of with Cp-substituted transition metal halides of nickel, cobalt and iron leads to the formation of a variety of novel Sb ligand complexes, such as the cubane-like compounds [(Cp'''Ni)(μ-Sb)] () and [(Cp'''Co)(μ-Sb)] () or the complexes [(CpCo)(μ-Sb)] () and [(Cp'''Fe)(μ-Sb)] (), representing a trigonal bipyramidal structure. Moreover, beside the transfer of Sb units, also the complete entity can be transferred as seen in the iron complex [(Cp'''Fe)(μη-Sb)] (). DFT calculations shed light on the bonding situation of the products.