A facile preparation of two new isostructural metal-organochalcogen clusters from simple starting materials: Sonochemical synthesis, X-ray structures and spectroscopic remarks

In this work, the formation and characterisation of two new isostructural metal-organochalcogen clusters from simple starting materials was investigated. A sonochemical synthesis was performed in a one-pot procedure without the isolation of synthetic intermediates. This methodology offers a new approach to prepare cluster compounds, and this experiment led to the formation of [(PhTe)(12)Hg-8(S)X-2 (Py)(2)]center dot Py (X = Br, I; Py = Pyridine) in good yield. The X-ray analyses reveal that the framework of the clusters contains a similar [Hg-8(mu(4)-S)Te-12] core as the central unit. The sulphur atom present in the core of both structures has a tetrahedral coordination geometry achieved by four S-Hg(II) bonds. The complete characterisation of the synthesised materials also includes elemental analyses, IR spectroscopy and UV-Vis absorption data. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.