Dynamic disorder in solid tetrakis(trimethylstannyl)methane, C(SnMe3)4, investigated by one- and two-dimensional variable-temperature119Sn and13C NMR spectroscopy

Modes of molecular reorientation in solid tetrakis(trimethylstannyl)methane, C(SnMe3)4, have been investigated by one- and two-dimensional13C and119Sn static and magic-angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) in the temperature range from 150 to 290 K. Spectral lineshape fitting of one- and two-dimensional119Sn NMR experiments shows the pseudo-fivefold disorder previously observed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction on C(SnMe3)4 to be dynamic disorder (activation energy Ea ≅ 32 kJmol−1). A dynamic-disorder model where each tin atom in a C(SnMe3)4 molecule occupies the twenty sites of a nearly perfect pentagonal dodecahedron with equal probability agrees best with the experimental solid-state NMR results.