Abstract
Commercially available N-oxide (2-mercaptopyridine-N-oxide) is used as a ligand instead of an oxidizing agent to stabilize the compounds of main group elements in low-valent states. The isolated compounds [(C5H4NOS)2Sn (2), (C5H4NOS)SnCl (3) and (C5H4NOS)GeCl (5)] are the first structurally characterized examples of O,S-heterocyclic stannylenes and germylenes with interesting bonding features. Further, the reaction of compound 2 with SbCl3 afforded the rare dichlorodiantimony oxide [{(C5H4NOS)SbCl}2O] (4) unprecedentedly.