Hydrolysis of tin(II) fluoride and crystal structure of Sn4OF6
Abstract
The hydrolysis of SnF2 in concentrated aqueous solution resulted in the formation of the tin(II) fluoride oxide, Sn4OF6. This is the first evidence for the formation of a basic tin(II) fluoride from an aqueous system. The crystal structure of Sn4OF6 has been determined using single-crystal X-ray diffraction and refined by full-matrix least-squares analysis to R= 0.0199. The compound crystallises in the orthorhombic space group P212121 with a= 16.088(3), b= 10.681 (2), c= 4.940(1)Å and Z= 4. The structure consists of a three-dimensional polymeric network of bridging fluorine and oxygen atoms. Tin is present in four distinct sites one showing tetragonal-based pyramidal geometry while the others all show trigonal-pyramidal geometry with a fourth bridging fluorine atom at 2.4–2.5 Å. The non-bonding electrons are stereochemically active and appear to point into irregular channels which run parallel to the c axis.