A new 'allotrope' for germanium

摘要

Following on from their recent success in developing the field of magnesium(I) chemistry, Professor Cameron Jones and his collaborator Dr Andreas Stasch (both of Monash University) have utilised dimeric magnesium(I) compounds as selective reducing agents in the formation of an unprecedented N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) adduct of the singlet (~1△_g) digermanium fragment, Ge2 (Sidiropoulos A., Jones C, Stasch A., Klein S.,Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2009,48, 9701-4). As the germanium centres of this remarkable species are formally in the 0 oxidation state, it can be viewed as a base-stabilised 'allotrope' of that element.