The series of group 14
metal trigonal bipyra
midal anions has been extended to the
mixed group 13/group 14
metal TlMTe
33- anions (M = Sn, Pb), obtained by the reaction of Tl
2M
2Te
3 and K
2Te in en or in en/ethyla
mine
mixtures and a stoichio
metric excess of 2,2,2-crypt with respect to K
+. The thalliu
m anions were characterizedin solution by
119Sn,
205Tl,
207Pb, and
125Te NMR spectroscopy. The s
mall
magnitudes of the relativistically correctedreduced coupling constants,
1(
KM-Ch)
RC and
1(
KTl-Ch)
RC, observed for the previously reported M
2Ch
32- (Ch =Se, Te) and the TlMTe
33- anions are consistent with predo
minantly p-bonded cages, and this observation issupported by local and nonlocal density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Theory indicates M-M and Tl-Minteractions of high s character corresponding to Mayer bond orders of 0.13-0.32. The (
KM-M)
RC and (
KTl-M)
RCcouplings are unusually large co
mpared to those of the butterfly-shaped Tl
2Ch
22- anions and likely arise fro
mhigher M-M and Tl-M bond orders, a larger nu
mber of coupling pathways, and s
maller M-Ch-M and M-Ch-Tl bond angles. The TlPbTe
33- anion has also been structurally characterized by X-ray crystallography in (2,2,2-crypt-K
+)
3TlPbTe
33-·2en [
monoclinic syste
m, space group
P2
1/c,
Z = 4,
a = 15.256(5) Å,
b = 26.087(9) Å,
c= 20.984(8) Å, and
mages/gifchars/beta2.gif" BORDER=0 ALIGN="middle"> = 93.03(3)
![](/i<font color=)
mages/entities/deg.gif">] along with Pb
2Ch
32- (Ch = S, Se) in (2,2,2-crypt-K
+)
2Pb
2Ch
32-·0.5en [Pb
2S
32-: triclinic syste
m, space group
P![](/i<font color=)
mages/entities/one
macr.gif">,
Z = 2,
a = 10.189(2) Å,
b = 11.329(2) Å,
c = 23.194(4) Å,
mages/gifchars/alpha.gif" BORDER=0> = 95.439(14)
![](/i<font color=)
mages/entities/deg.gif">,
mages/gifchars/beta2.gif" BORDER=0 ALIGN="middle"> = 92.562(14)
![](/i<font color=)
mages/entities/deg.gif">, and
mages/gifchars/gamma.gif" BORDER=0 > = 90.549(14)
![](/i<font color=)
mages/entities/deg.gif">; Pb
2Se
32-: triclinic syste
m, space group
P![](/i<font color=)
mages/entities/one
macr.gif">,
Z = 2,
a = 10.187(2) Å,
b= 11.403(2) Å,
c = 23.360(6) Å,
mages/gifchars/alpha.gif" BORDER=0> = 95.26(2)
![](/i<font color=)
mages/entities/deg.gif">,
mages/gifchars/beta2.gif" BORDER=0 ALIGN="middle"> = 92.17(2)
![](/i<font color=)
mages/entities/deg.gif">, and
mages/gifchars/gamma.gif" BORDER=0 > = 90.89(2)
![](/i<font color=)
mages/entities/deg.gif">]. Density functional theorycalculations show that the experi
mental structures for the M
2Ch
32- and TlPbTe
33- anions are true
mini
ma andreproduce the experi
mental bond distances and angles. The vibrational frequencies deter
mined by DFT calculationsare in good agree
ment with those deter
mined by Ra
man spectroscopy and have been used in their assign
ment.