A Five-Membered PdSbn Coordination Series – Organometallics

Our article “A Five-Membered PdSb_n Coordination Series” was published as an advanced article in Organometallics today.

It reports an extremely unusual series of five related complexes, formed from reacting the same ligand (SbMe₂Cl) and metal precursor (PdCl₂(MeCN)₂) in different molar ratios. Despite sharing the simple empirical formula PdCl₂(SbMe₂Cl)_n (n = 1-5), these complexes display significant structural diversity in the solid state, driven by the formation of secondary Sb—Cl interactions which cause four of the complexes to adopt supramolecular structures. The fifth, monomeric complex, [Pd(SbMe₂Cl)₅]Cl₂, is an unprecedented example of a square pyramidal coordination environment in a homoleptic Pd(II) complex, and also the first reported example of PdSb₅ coordination.

We collaborated with Dr. Tobias Krämer at Maynooth University to model the electronic structure of these complexes, paying particular attention to the elucidation of unusual bonding behaviours.