Lithium phosphinomethanides, alkali metal complex

Incorporation of additional donor functionality into the periphery of phosphinomethanide ligands also has dramatic consequences for the structures of their alkali metal complexes. The complex [Li C(SiMe2Ph)(PMe2)2 ]3 (49) crystallizes as solvent-free cyclic tri-mers (Fig. 18), in which each lithium is primarily coordinated by two P atoms from one ligand and the carbanion center of an adjacent ligand (138, 139). This is supplemented by an essentially -interaction with the ipso and an ortho-carbon of the phenyl ring associated with the carbanion bonded to lithium. Each Li is thus bound by two P atoms, two aryl carbons, and a central carbon of the phosphinomethanide ligands. 

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