Anionic interactions xanthate structures

The important point to appreciate is that the formal valency of zinc is satisfied by two bonds to sulfur so that the additional interactions are indeed hypervalent interactions. Thus, the nature of the adopted structures arises from the ability of the central element to form hypervalent, or secondary, interactions and it is proposed that this ability is moderated by steric considerations associated with the alkyl substituents. As noted from the structural studies for the uncoordinated xanthate anions summarized earlier in Section II, there are no electronic differences among the xanthate ligands that can be correlated with the nature of the oxygen-bound substituent. This conclusion is vindicated by the homogeneity of the molecular structures of the binary nickel xanthates as... 

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