Catenation is one important characteristic of the tetrel elements. Catenated compounds of the heavier tetrels usually exhibit unusual bonding schemes, which consequently display interesting physical properties such as conductivity, thermochromism, and nonlinear optical properties. In contrast to the well explored oligomeric and polymeric silanes and stannanes, catenated germanium derivatives are less known, partially due to the lack of efficient synthetic protocols. In this presentation, we will demonstrate the synthesis of interesting digermylenes supported by two ter-dentate 2,6-diamidopyridines featuring an eclipsed conformation, which can be further reduced to give an unprecedented eclipsed Ge<sup>I</sup>-Ge<sup>I</sup> bonded digermylene. It turns out that these dinuclear germylenes are good synthons, by which linear and cyclic tetranuclear tetrel, s-shaped hexanuclear tetrel(I) and a cyclic octagermanum(I) compounds are prepared and characterized. Meanwhile, reactivity of the eclipsed digermylenes is associated with their bulk of supporting ligands. The employment of less sterically demanding supporting ligands leads to the isolation of germylone-stabilized linear trigermanium complexes. Electronic structures of these multinuclear germanium chains and rings are realized by theoretical computations.

Eclipsed digermylenes as building blocks to construct catenated multinuclear germanium chains and rings

2019 Fall National Meeting

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