Strontium aryloxides

The stereochemistry of Mg and the heavier alkaline earth metals is more flexible than that of Be and, in addition to occasional compounds which feature low coordination numbers (2, 3 and 4), there are many examples of 6, 8 and 12 coordination, some with 7, 9 or 10 coordination, and even some with coordination numbers as high as 22 or 24, as in SrCdn, BaCdn and (Ca, Sr or Ba)Zni3. " Strontium is 5-coordinate on the hemisolvate [Sr(OC6H2Bu3)2(thf)3]. jthf which features a distorted trigonal bipyramidal structure with the two aryloxides in equatorial positions. ... 

There has been an outburst of research interest in the structures, physical properties, and chemistry of the group 2 metal aryloxides. This is particularly true for the elements strontium and barium where work has been stimulated by the possible use of metal aryloxides as precursors (either via sol-gel or MOCVD processes) for the formation of binary and ternary oxides containing these metals.2 Synthetic procedures are based on either the halide (Be) alkyl derivatives (Mg, Grignard derivatives, etc.) or the actual metallic element (Ca, Sr, Ba). Structural studies (Tables 6.14-6.18) show for the smaller elements Be, Mg, and Ca that monomeric and dimeric structural motifs dominate, with rarer examples of trinuclear clusters, e.g. [Ca3(OPh)5(HMPA)6][OPh.2HOPh].2 2 in the case of strontium and barium a more extensive cluster chemistry has been developed for small aryloxide ligands, while monomeric units with terminal aryloxides can be formed with bulky ligands and sufficient additional Lewis bases, e.g. [Ba(OC6H2Bu2-2,6-Me-4)2(THF)3].2 ... 

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