Investigations into the Reactivity of Organoelement Gallium Subhalides - Syntheses of Bifunctional Digallium Carboxylate Iodides Possessing Bridged Ga-Ga Bonds and Terminal Iodine Atoms

The organoelement subhalide R2Ga2I2 (1) [R = C(SiMe3)3] reacted with one equivalent of different lithium carboxylates LiO2CR [R = ‐C6H5, ‐4‐Me3C–C6H4, ‐4‐BrC6H4, ‐3,5‐Me2C6H3, ‐CMe3] by the selective replacement of only one iodine atom. Bifunctional digallium compounds were formed, in which one chelating carboxylato group bridges the Ga–Ga bonds. Thus, both gallium atoms are coordinated to one carbon atom of the tris(trimethylsilyl)methyl groups and one oxygen atom of the chelating ligand, while only one is further attached to a terminal iodine atom. This asymmetric substitution pattern results in different coordination numbers of three and four for the gallium atoms. (© Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2006)