Synthesis and Characterization of Tetrakis(pentafluoroethyl)indate Salts

In the rising field of organoindium chemistry little is known about the perfluoroorganyl-substituted indium compounds. The increasing use of indium reagents is explained by their high stability and tolerance towards water and functional groups. Here we report on the synthesis of the novel tetrakis(pentafluoroethyl)indate, [In(C₂ F₅ )₄ ]^- , and its characterization in salts with the cations [Li(thf)₃ ]⁺ , Cs⁺ , [PPh₄ ]⁺ and [H₁₄ O₆ ]²⁺ (thf=tetrahydrofuran). To the best of our knowledge, these salts constitute the first perfluoroalkylindates and, in general, the first isolated perfluoroalkylindium compounds which are fully characterized by NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, elemental analysis and X-ray diffraction analysis.