Recently, our group has shown that proximal cationic moieties enhance the fluoride and cyanide affinity of triarylboranes. We are now investigating the use of cationic stibonium Lewis acids to assist anion binding to triarylboranes via chelation. In this presentation, we will describe complexes such as 1+ which quantitatively abstracts fluoride anions from 2-F thus indicating that it possesses an enhanced Lewis acidity compared to 2+. This increase can be assigned to the larger size and electropositivity of antimony versus phosphorus.

Lewis acidic properties of a bifunctional stibonium/borane

240th National Meeting (2010)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.