Versatile coordination chemistry of rhodium complexes containing the bis(trimethylsilylmethyl)tellane ligand

When RhCl3 · 3H2O was treated with an excess of Te(CH2SiMe3)2, a mononuclear mer-[RhCl3{Te(CH2SiMe3)2}3] (1) was observed as the main product. By reducing the metal-to-ligand molar ratio, dinuclear [Rh2(μ-Cl)2Cl4{Te(CH2SiMe3)2}4] (2) was obtained in addition to 1. Further reduction of the metal-to-ligand ratio resulted in the formation of [Rh2(μ-Cl)2Cl4(OHCH2CH3){Te(CH2SiMe3)2}3] (3). The treatment of mer-[RhCl3(SMePh)3] (4) with two equivalents of Te(CH2SiMe3)2 affords a mixture of mer-[RhCl3{Te(CH2SiMe3)2}3] (1) and mer-[RhCl3{Te(CH2SiMe3)2}2(SMePh)] (5). All complexes 1–4 and 5 · ½EtOH were characterized by X-ray crystallography and 125Te NMR spectroscopy, where appropriate. The definite assignment of the 125Te chemical shifts enabled a plausible discussion of the assignment of some unknown resonances that were observed in the NMR spectra.