Reversible Oxidative Addition of Zinc Hydride at a Gallium(I)-Centre: Labile Mono- and Bis(hydridogallyl)zinc Complexes.

In the presence of TMEDA (N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine), partially deaggregated zinc dihydride as hydrocarbon suspensions react with the gallium(I) compound [(BDI)Ga] (I, BDI={HC(C(CH 3 )N(2,6-iPr 2 -C 6 H 3 )) 2 } - ) by formal oxidative addition of a Zn-H bond to the gallium(I) centre. Dissociation of the labile TMEDA ligand in the resulting complex [(BDI)Ga(H)-(H)Zn(tmeda)] (1) facilitates insertion of a second equiv. of I into the remaining Zn-H to form a thermally sensitive trinuclear species [{(BDI)Ga(H)} 2 Zn] (2). Compound 1 exchanges with polymeric zinc dideuteride [ZnD 2 ] n in the presence of TMEDA, and with compounds I and 2 via sequential and reversible ligand dissociation and gallium(I) insertion. Spectroscopic and computational studies demonstrate the reversibility of oxidative addition of each Zn-H bond to the gallium(I) centres.