Methyl and arylchalcogenolate complexes of cadmium in a sulfur rich coordination environment: syntheses and structural characterization of the tris(2-mercapto-1-tert-butylimidazolyl)hydroborato cadmium complexes [TmBut]CdMe, and [TmBut]CdEAr (E = O, S, Se, Te) and analysis of the bonding in chalcogenolate compounds

Abstract

A series of arylchalcogenolate complexes of cadmium supported by tris(2-mercapto-1-tert-butylimidazolyl)hydroborato ligation, namely [Tm^But]CdEAr (EAr = OC₆H₃Ph₂, SPh, SePh, TePh), has been synthesized from [Tm^But]CdMe; structural characterization by X-ray diffraction indicates that the variation in Cd–EAr bond lengths is similar to that of Zn–EAr and correlates closely with the covalent radius of the chalcogen, in marked contrast to the large variation in M–OAr and M–SAr bond lengths observed for other metals (Zr and Sm).