Research news, Aug. 21st, 2017

 Aromatic Tetralithiodigalloles with a Ga–Ga Bond:

Synthesis and Structural Characterization

Yongliang Zhang, Yue Chi, Junnian Wei, Qi Yang, Zhenqiang Yang, Hui Chen, 

Ruina Yang,* Wen-Xiong Zhang,* and Zhenfeng Xi*

Organometallics 2017, 36, 2982-2986.

The chemistry of metal-containing aromatics is a fascinating topic and has attracted much attention. However, reports on galla-aromatics are very rare, probably due to lack of efficient synthetic methods. In this paper, we report the successful synthesis, isolation and characterization of multiply substituted aromatic tetralithiodigalloles with a Ga–Ga bond. Both experimental measurements (X-ray structural analysis, NMR spectroscopy) and theoretical analysis (ISE, NICS) demonstrated the aromaticity of the tetralithiodigalloles. These results reported in this paper including the synthesis of lithium spirogallane ate complexes extended the chemistry of galla-aromatics.