Coordination of a stibine oxide to a Lewis acidic stiborane at the upper rim of the biphenylene backbone

Abstract

Our interest in bifunctional antimony Lewis acids has led us to synthesize 1,8-bis(diphenylstibino)biphenylene (2) by reaction of 1,8-bis(trimethylstannyl)biphenylene (1) with Ph₂SbCl. Oxidation of this distibine with o-chloranil, followed by work-up in air afforded a biphenylene derivative (3) featuring a triarylstibine oxide connected via an SbO → Sb bridge to the neighbouring antimony(V) center.