Synthesis, Characterization, and Properties of Weakly Coordinating Anions Based on tris-Perfluoro-tert-Butoxyborane

Francis A LeBlanc; Andreas Decken; T Stanley Cameron; Jack Passmore; J Mikko Rautiainen; Thomas K Whidden

doi:10.1021/acs.inorgchem.6b02670

Synthesis, Characterization, and Properties of Weakly Coordinating Anions Based on tris-Perfluoro-tert-Butoxyborane

Inorg Chem. 2017 Jan 17;56(2):974-983. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.6b02670. Epub 2017 Jan 3.

Authors

Francis A LeBlanc¹, Andreas Decken¹, T Stanley Cameron², Jack Passmore¹, J Mikko Rautiainen³, Thomas K Whidden¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, University of New Brunswick , Fredericton, New Brunswick E3B 5A3, Canada.
² Department of Chemistry, Dalhousie University , P.O. Box 15000, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada.
³ Department of Chemistry and Nanoscience Center, University of Jyväskylä , P.O. Box 35, Jyväskylä FI-40014, Finland.

PMID: 28045506
DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.6b02670

Abstract

A convenient method for the preparation of strongly Lewis acidic tris-perfluoro-tert-butoxyborane B(OR^F)₃ (1), (OR^F = OC(CF₃)₃) was developed, and its X-ray structure was determined. 1 was used as a precursor, guided by density functional theory (DFT) calculations and volume-based thermodynamics, for the synthesis of [NEt₄][NCB(OR^F)₃] (3) and [NMe₄][FB(OR^F)₃] (5) and the novel large and weakly coordinating anion salts [Li 15-Crown-5][B(OR^F)₄] (2) and [NEt₄][CN{B(OR^F)₃}₂] (4). The stability of [B(OR^F)₄]^- was compared with that of some related known weakly coordinating anions by appropriate DFT calculations.