Activation of CS and CO by Silylium Cations.

The hydride-bridged silylium cation [Et Si-H-SiEt ] , stabilized by the weakly coordinating [Me NB Cl ] anion, undergoes, in the presence of excess silane, a series of unexpected consecutive reactions with the valence-isoelectronic molecules CS and CO . The final products of the reaction with CS are methane and the previously unknown [(Et Si) S] cation. To gain insight into the entire reaction cascade, numerous experiments with varying conditions were performed, intermediate products were intercepted, and their structures were determined by X-ray crystallography.

First steps towards a stable neon compound: observation and bonding analysis of [B(CN)Ne].

Noble gas (Ng) containing molecular anions are much scarcer than Ng containing cations. No neon containing anion has been reported so far. Here, the experimental observation of the molecular anion [B(CN)Ne] and a theoretical analysis of the boron-neon bond is reported.

Na[MeNBCl]·SO: a rare example of a sodium-SO complex.

In the title compound, Na[MeNBCl]·SO [systematic name: sodium 1-(trimethylammonio)-undeca-chloro--dodeca-borate sulfur dioxide], the SO mol-ecule is --coordinated to the Na cation. Surprisingly, the SO mol-ecule is more weakly bound to sodium than is found in other sodium-SO complexes and the SO mol-ecule is essentially undistorted compared to the structure of free SO. The Na cation has a coordination number of eight in a distorted twofold-capped trigonal prism and makes contacts to three individual boron cluster anions, resulting in an overall three-dimensional network.

Rational design of an argon-binding superelectrophilic anion.

Chemically binding to argon (Ar) at room temperature has remained the privilege of the most reactive electrophiles, all of which are cationic (or even dicationic) in nature. Herein, we report a concept for the rational design of anionic superelectrophiles that are composed of a strong electrophilic center firmly embedded in a negatively charged framework of exceptional stability. To validate our concept, we synthesized the percyano-dodecoborate [B(CN)], the electronically most stable dianion ever investigated experimentally.