Hydroalumination of H2C==CHCH2SMe: Synthesis and Molecular Structure of (tBu)2Al(CH2CH2CH2SMe)

Hydroalumination of H2C==CHCH2SMe with [(tBu)2Al(μ-H)]3 yields the monomeric thioether compound (tBu)2Al(CH2CH2CH2SMe). The molecular structure of (tBu)2 Al(CH2CH2CH2SMe) consists of discreet monomers in which the thioether-alkyl ligand acts as a chelate ligand with an Al-S interaction [2.511(2) Å] that is significantly shorter than observed for other intra-molecular coordination compounds, 2.78–2.95 Å. The coordination about aluminum is highly distorted from tetrahedral and is therefore best described as capped trigonal planar or trigonal bipyramidal with a vacant coordination site. Crystal data: monoclinic, P21/n (No. 14), a = 6.6357(5), b = 13.630(1), c = 16.959(1) Å, β = 95.416(6)°. V = 1527.0(2) Å3, Z = 4, R = 0.0412, Rw = 0.0503.