Abstract
Heating a mixture of tributyltin hydride (>2 mol equiv.) and bis(tributyltin)oxide cleanly produces hexabutylditin in excellent yield.
Acknowledgment
We thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for financial support.
Notes
aWe attempted to prepare Bu3SnSnBu3 as described in Ref.Citation6 but observed inconsistent results. In our hands, prolonged treatment of Bu3SnOSnBu3 with NaBH4 in ethanol usually gave mixtures of Bu3SnSnBu3 and Bu3SnH. Very occasionally (twice in about 50 attempts), Bu3SnSnBu3 was the major (>85%) product formed.
bAn old commercial sample of Bu3SnH was found to contain no Bu3SnH but only a mixture of Bu3SnSnBu3 and Bu3SnOSnBu3 (an oxidation product), suggesting that this dimerization may occur even at ambient temperatures.