Synthesis and structural characterization of tris(phenolate)amine complexes of antimony derived from image

The antimony aryloxide compound image may be readily obtained via the reaction of Sb(OEt)3 with tris(3,5-di-t-butyl-2-hydroxybenzyl)amine, image.image forms the adduct image upon treatment with Me2SO, and comparison of the molecular structure of image with that of [κ4-N(o-C6H4O)3]Sb(OSMe2) demonstrates that the Sb–OSMe2 bond length in the former complex is significantly longer than that in the latter. This observation indicates that the image ligand engenders a less Lewis acidic antimony center than does image. image exhibits diverse reactivity. For example, treatment of image with AcOH cleaves one of the Sb–O bonds to give image, Br2 undergoes oxidative addition to give image, while Me3NO · 2H2O yields the oxo and hydroxo complexes image, image, and image.