X-ray structure determinations of tetrakis(trifluoromethyl)diphosphane (
2c, mp -82
C, triclinic,
P; Z = 1,
a =529.7(3) pm,
b = 681.6(2) pm,
c = 802.8(3) pm,
= 108.58(1)
,
= 99.66(1)
,
= 103.29(1)
, wR2 = 0.204)and -diarsane (
3c, mp -52
C, monoclinic,
P2
1/
c; Z = 2,
a = 769.5(3) pm,
b = 750.0(3) pm,
c = 960.7(2) pm,
= 105.26(1)
, wR2 = 0.115), both at -100(3)
C, reveal the molecules to adopt the trans conformation in thesolid. Compared with the tetramethyl derivatives, the E-E (224.6(2)/246.3(1) pm, E = P, As) and E-C(188.3(4)/201.3(7) pm) bonds are elongated by 4.5/4.8 pm and 3.4/3.4 pm, respectively. From gas electron diffractionstudies of diphosphane
2c a mixture of 85(10)% trans and 15(10)% gauche conformers can be deduced; diarsane
3c shows the trans form exclusively. The molecular parameters (E-E, 224.8(11)/245.2(6); E-C, 189.6(4)/201.2(4) pm) agree excellently with those determined for the crystalline state. As a result of quantum chemicalcalculations at Hartree-Fock and hybrid density functional levels of theory using 6-311+G* basis sets, the gaucheconformer of hydrazine derivative
1c and the trans conformer of diarsane
3c are clearly lowest in energy. However,for diphosphane
2c the gauche and not the trans form is found to be slightly more stable. Variations of calculatedE-E and E-C bond lengths are analyzed and compared with corresponding values of the parent compoundsE
2H
4 (
1a to
3a) as well as the tetramethyl derivatives
1b to
3b.