Bismuth and Titanium Phosphinates: Isolation of Tetra-, Hexa- and Octanuclear Clusters.

The reaction of organobismuth precursors with trityl-H-phosphinic acid in varying reaction conditions afforded colorless crystals, whose single crystal X-ray characterization revealed the formation of monomer {(Ph3Bi)[(Ph3C)(H)PO2]2}·3/2(CH3CN)2.1/2H2O (1) and butterfly shaped tetranuclear cluster Bi4(μ3-O)2[(Ph3C)(H)(PO2)]8·2CH2Cl2·1/2CH3CN.2H2O (2). The reaction of titanium isopropoxide with two different phosphinic acids trityl-H-phosphinic acid and cycP(O)(OH) led to isolation of cubane type octahedral complex {Ti8(μ2-O)8(μ2-OH)4[(Ph3C)(H)PO2]12}[3C7H8] (3) and hexanuclear complex Ti6(μ2-cycPO2)9(μ2-O)6(μ2-OH)3·4CH3CN·4H2O (4) respectively.