Exploring the Use of Pseudosymmetry in the Design of Higher-Symmetry Crystals of Racemic Compounds.

Organometallic antimony(V) complexes were prepared as model compounds to better understand the interactions of chiral chelating diols with this metalloid. These complexes feature three aryl groups (-xylyl or -tolyl) and a bidentate -2,3-butanediolate. The -xylyl and -tolyl complexes of either enantiomerically pure 2,3-butanediolate or 2,3-butanediolate (compounds -) crystallized in Sohncke space groups, as expected.

Silver 4,4'-Vinylenedipyridine Coordination Polymers: Linker Effects on Formation Thermodynamics and Anion Exchange.

Four new and one previously reported silver 4,4'-vinylenedipyridine (Vpe) coordination polymers were tested as anion exchange materials to assess their potential for pollutant sequestration and compared to analogous silver 4,4'-bipyridine (bipy) coordination polymers. The materials were synthesized using nitrate, tetrafluoroborate, perchlorate, perrhenate, or chromate as the anion to produce cationic coordination polymers with solubilities ranging from 0.0137(7) to 0.

Variation in pnictogen-oxygen bonding unlocks greatly enhanced Brønsted basicity for the monomeric stibine oxide.

Phosphine oxides and arsine oxides feature highly polarized pnictoryl groups (Pn-O/Pn = O; Pn = P, As) and react as Brønsted bases through O-centered lone pairs. We recently reported the first example of a monomeric stibine oxide, DippSbO (Dipp = diisopropylphenyl), allowing periodic trends in pnictoryl bonding to be extended to antimony for the first time. Computational studies suggest that, as the pnictogen atom becomes heavier, delocalization of electron density from the O-centered lone pairs to the Pn-C σ* orbitals is attenuated, destabilizing the lone pairs and increasing the donor capacity of the pnictine oxide.