Polystannanes distannanes

Catenation is well established in organotin chemistry and distannane derivatives can be prepared by standard methods (see Ge, p. 396). The compounds are more reactive than organodiger-manes e.g. Sn2Meg (mp 23°) inflames in air at its bp (182°) and absorbs oxygen slowly at room temperature to give (Me2Sn)20. Typical routes to higher polystannanes are ... 

Most of the reactions that can be used to prepare distannanes can be extended to the preparation of oligo- and polystannanes, which have attracted interest for potential use in electronic and optical devices.455 The structures of the products are not necessarily those of completely linear catenanes, (R2Sn) , and different degrees of branching confer different properties. The formation of polymers is also frequently accompanied by the formation of cyclic pentamers or hexamers, and samples prepared by different methods may show substantially different properties. 

Distannane, HjSn-SnHj (1), which can be considered a heavy-atom analog of ethane, is the simplest chemical structure that falls under the preceding definition for the class of compounds known as polystannanes. 

Much less has been documented concerning the chemical reactivity of linear polystannane oligomers, but, at the outset, it can be expected to closely parallel that reported for distannanes. It is known that these compounds are air-sensitive when the substituents posses small steric bulk. But so far, no attempts have been conveyed concerning the controlled... 

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