Activation and Catalytic Degradation of SF 6 and PhSF 5 at a Bismuth Center.

In this work, we report the catalytic degradation of SF 6 and PhSF 5 using N , C , N pincer bismuthinidene complexes ( 1 and 5 ). Exposure of SF 6 and PhSF 5 to 1 results in the reduction of the S(VI) substrates and concomitant formation of Bi(III) and Bi(II) compounds, which were isolated and characterized. The oxidized bismuth-based products were demonstrated to undergo reduction with PMe 3 , recovering the starting complex 1 . Having established a synthetic redox cycle, the catalytic degradation of SF 6 and PhSF 5 was developed through ligand optimization to 5 , leading to a 528 TON for SF 6 and the first reported TON for PhSF 5 (3.2).