Synthesis and Structural Similarities of Yttrium and Lanthanide Chloride Complexes with Diglyme and Tetrahydrofuran

Mononuclear molecular complexes, [YCl3(diglyme)(THF)](1) and [LuCl3(diglyme)(H2O)](2), [ErBr3(diglyme)(H2O)](3), and binuclear molecular complexes [MCl3(diglyme)]2 (M = Y (4), Lu (5)) were synthesized by the reactions of corresponding halide hydrates, (CH3)3SiX (X = Cl, Br) and diethylen glycol dimethyl ether (diglyme) in tetrahydrofuran (THF). The complex 1 crystallized from a reaction solution, while the complexes 2, 3 and the binuclear complexes 4, 5 were obtained by recrystallizations of reaction products from dichloromethane. The complexes 2 and 3 were obtained if some water was present during crystallization. The central ions M (M = Y, Er, Lu) in the complexes 1–5 are seven-coordinate in a distorted pentagonal bipyramidal fashion. Four oxygen atoms and three halide ions are coordinated to the central ions in [MX3(diglyme)(L)](1, 2, 3), while two bridging and two nonbridging chloride ions and three oxygen atoms are coordinated to yttrium or lutetium in [MCl3(diglyme)]2, 4 and 5, respectively. A reaction of HoCl3 • 6H2O and (CH3)3SiCl in THF resulted in an ionic complex [HoCl2(THF)5][HoCl4(THF)2](6).