Homoleptic Bismuth Amides

ISMUNARYO MOENANDAR, and NICHOLAS C. NORMAN CHECKED BY KENTON H. WHITMIRE1 

Bismuth is an important element in many of the new high-temperature, oxide superconductors and in a variety of heterogeneous mixed oxide catalysts. Some of the methods employed in the preparation of these materials, namely sol-gel and chemical vapor deposition processes, require bismuth alkoxides as precursors and a number of papers on these compounds have recently been published.1 One synthetic route to bismuth alkoxides, which avoids the more commonly used trihalide starting materials and the often troublesome separation of alkali metal halides, involves the reaction between a bismuth amide and an alcohol according to the following equation  

Since relatively little has been published on the synthesis and properties of homoleptic bismuth amides,2,3 details on the preparation of two such compounds, Bi(NMe2)3 and Bi N(SiMe3)2 3, are described herein. 

All solvents must be appropriately dried and deoxygenated, all glassware should be dried in an oven and all manipulations should be carried out under an inert atmosphere. 

Li[NMe2] was prepared by condensing an excess of dimethylamine onto frozen n-BuLi and allowing the mixture to warm to room temperature with shaking following the procedure described by Chisholm et al. with the slight modification that immersion of the reaction flask in dry ice-propan-2-ol was omitted. 

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