Diaryl(fluorinated)-mercury species as potential precursors of triaryl (fluorinated)-gallium to be used in the synthesis of cyclometallated Ga compounds and unexpected formation of aryl-Ga clusters

The first goal of this work was to explore the feasibility of diaryl-mercury species as the synthetic precursors of triaryl-gallium species GaAr*(3) (where Ar*= pH, 4; Ar*= 3,5-difluorophenyl, 5; and Ar*= 3,5-trifluoromethylphenyl, 6). Expecting that 4-6 behave as Lewis acids of different strength, the second purpose was to use them for the synthesis of either rollover or classic cyclometallated Ga compounds. Three analogous diaryl-mercury HgAr*(2) species, 1-3, were successfully synthesized. The structures of compounds 2 and 3 were confirmed by gas chromatography - mass spectrometry experiments. Additionally, compound 3 was analyzed through X-ray diffraction; in the crystal structure obtained, pi-stacking interactions were observed. The only Ga compound synthesized was GaPh3, 4, because the presence of fluorine-containing groups in meta-position caused sublimation of the respective mercury diaryl compounds, impeding their reaction with gallium. The attempts toward the synthesis of the rollover or classic cyclometallated compounds in the reaction of 4 with bipyridine-, pyrazole- or benzo-imidazole- type ligands have failed. On the other hand, under the experimental conditions applied, water traces favored formation of the solid aryl-Ga cluster containing twelve Ga atoms [Ga-12], whereas the above-mentioned ligands were quantitatively recovered in the solution. The identity of aryl-gallium cluster was confirmed by electrospray ionization - high resolution mass spectrometry. Although Ga cluster was not expected, it is considered an important finding of this work, owing to the variety of possible applications and still limited data available on the synthesis and structural characterization of such compounds.