Potassium-telluroether interactions: structural characterisation and computational analysis.

Area of Science:

• Organometallic Chemistry
• Inorganic Chemistry
• Computational Chemistry

Background:

• Potassium complexes with tellurium ligands are of interest for understanding novel bonding interactions.
• Previous studies have explored related alkali metal-chalcogen bonds, but unambiguous examples involving telluroethers were lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize and characterize novel potassium-telluroether complexes.
• To provide the first unambiguous experimental and computational evidence for s-block-telluroether bonding.
• To investigate the structural diversity of these complexes under varying conditions.

Main Methods:

• Crystallization of potassium complexes from tetrahydrofuran (THF) and hexanes.
• X-ray crystallography for structural determination of synthesized compounds.
• Density Functional Theory (DFT) and Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules (QTAIM) calculations to analyze bonding.

Main Results:

• Synthesis and X-ray crystallographic characterization of [K(ATe₂^Tripp2)(THF)₃] (2-Te), revealing significantly shorter K-Te distances compared to the precursor [K(ATe₂^Tripp2)(dme)₂] (1-Te).
• Computational studies (DFT and QTAIM) provided strong support for K-TeR₂ interactions, confirming the s-block-telluroether bond.
• Isolation of related complexes [K(ATe₂^Tripp2)(THF)₂] (3-Te), [K(ATe₂^Tripp2)(THF)] (4-Te), and [K(ATe₂^Tripp2)] (5-Te) under different preparation conditions.
• Synthesis and partial characterization of selenium analogues (2-Se, 3-Se, 4-Se).

Conclusions:

• The study presents the first unambiguous examples of s-block-telluroether bonding.
• The K-TeR₂ interactions are experimentally confirmed and computationally supported.
• The findings open new avenues for exploring bonding in alkali metal-chalcogen chemistry.