Aluminum halides antimony halide complexes

Hydrogen bonding is so common that coordinate bonds between other elements are sometimes overlooked. Antimony(Ill) halides form very few complexes with other halides, whereas aluminum halides readily form complexes. The octet of electrons is complete in all atoms of the antimony halides, but is incomplete in die aluminum atom of aluminum halides ... 

Aluminum can accept two electrons to complete its octet. The pair of electrons is available from the halogen. An alkali halide can supply the electrons and form a complex (c), or the electron pair may come from the halogen of another aluminum chloride. Association with other aluminum halides accounts for the higher melting point of aluminum halides over antimony(lll) halides which have a formula weight of 95 or more. The association of aluminum sulfate, alkali metal sulfate, and water to form the stable alums is one of the more complex examples. 

The chemistry of Lewis acids is quite varied, and equilibria such as those shown in Eqs. (28) and (29) should often be supplemented with additional possibilities. Some Lewis acids form dimers that have very different reactivities than those of the monomeric acids. For example, the dimer of titanium chloride is much more reactive than monomeric TiCL (cf., Chapter 2). Alkyl aluminum halides also dimerize in solution, whereas boron and tin halides are monomeric. Tin tetrachloride can complex up to two chloride ligands to form SnCL2-. Therefore, SnCl5 can also act as a Lewis acid, although it is weaker than SnCl4 [148]. Transition metal halides based on tungsten, vanadium, iron, and titanium may coordinate alkenes, and therefore initiate polymerization by either a coordinative or cationic mechanism. Other Lewis acids add to alkenes this may be slow as in haloboration and iodine addition, or faster as with antimony penta-chloride. 

Diorgano tellurium dihalides form complexes with iodine and interhalogen compounds organic compounds with N, P, O, S, and Se donor atoms boron, aluminum, and gallium trihalides antimony pentachloride and mercury(II) halides. 

Halides of aluminum, silicon, and phosphorus5, tin tetrachloride, titanium tetrachloride, and antimony pentachloride6 did not form complexes with diphenyl tellurium oxide, but converted it to the corresponding diphenyl tellurium dihalide. 

R. C. Paul, S. Sharda, and B. R. Sreenathan, Indian J. Chem., 2, 97 (1964). Electrochemical studies of Lewis acids in dimethylformamide. Complexes studied SO3, tin (IV) halides, aluminum chloride, cadmium chloride and antimony (V) chloride. 

A technique has been developed (see Table 4.2) for the synthesis of homoleptic solvento-complexes by halide abstraction from metal halides by Lewis acids, i.e. boron(III), aluminum(lll), gallium(III), indium(III), thallium(III), tin(IV), antimony(V), and iron(in) halides.7l-77... 

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