Thiourea and selenourea derivatives have been used as ligands in studies pertaining to the sequestration of heavy metals, photocatalysis, and the preparation of copper and gold complexes of biological relevance. In view of several suggestions that the well-known toxicity of mercury is linked to the biochemical roles of selenium, it is worthwhile to further develop the coordination chemistry of mercury and other soft closed-shell metal ions with sulfur- and selenium-containing ligands. This presentation describes the synthesis and reactivity of sterically-demanding N-heterocyclic thione (NHT) and selone (NHSe) ligands whose coordination chemistry has remained largely unexplored until now. More specifically, complexes such as (NHT)HgX<sub>2</sub>, (NHT)CuX (X = Cl, Br, I) and their selone analogues have been isolated and fully characterized. A description and comparison of several of their molecular structures will be included in this presentation together with a summary of a series of competition studies between thione and selone analogues conducted to assess the affinity of these metals for the chalcogen ligands.

Bulky N-heterocyclic thione (NHT) and selone (NHSe) complexes of mercury(II) and copper(I)

251st National Meeting (2016)

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