Methylbismuth dichloride is the
organobismuth compound
Organobismuth chemistry is the chemistry of organometallic compounds containing a carbon to bismuth chemical bond. Applications are few. The main bismuth oxidation states are Bi(III) and Bi(V) as in all higher group 15 elements. The energy of a bo ...
with the formula CH
3BiCl
2. It is a pale yellow solid. The compound can be prepared in two steps from
diphenylbismuth chloride, first by methylation with
methylmagnesium chloride
Methylmagnesium chloride is an organometallic compound with the general formula CH3MgCl. This highly flammable, colorless, and moisture sensitive material is the simplest Grignard reagent and is commercially available, usually as a solution in te ...
. Treatment of the resulting methyldiphenylbismuthine with
hydrogen chloride
The compound hydrogen chloride has the chemical formula and as such is a hydrogen halide. At room temperature, it is a colourless gas, which forms white fumes of hydrochloric acid upon contact with atmospheric water vapor. Hydrogen chloride ga ...
cleaves the two phenyl-bismuth bonds.
The compound adopts a
polymer
A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part")
is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...
ic structure wherein each
square pyramidal Bi center is bound to four chloride
ligand
In coordination chemistry, a ligand is an ion or molecule (functional group) that binds to a central metal atom to form a coordination complex. The bonding with the metal generally involves formal donation of one or more of the ligand's electr ...
s and an apical
methyl group. The bismuth centers are interconnected by doubly
bridged
Bridging may refer to:
Construction
* Building of bridges across a gap
* Cross bracing used between joists to stabilize them
Electronics and computing
* In electronics, using a low source impedance to drive a large load impedance for maximum vol ...
chloride centers.
[{{cite journal , doi=10.1021/om000749i, title=Syntheses and Chemistry of Methylantimony and Methylbismuth Dihalides: An Extended Two-Dimensional Framework in the Crystal Structure of CH3BiCl2 and Molecular Units in the Structures of [CH3ECl2(2,2'-bipyridine)] (E = Sb, Bi), year=2001, last1=Althaus, first1=Henrik, last2=Breunig, first2=Hans Joachim, last3=Lork, first3=Enno, journal=Organometallics, volume=20, issue=3, pages=586–589]
References
Organobismuth compounds
Chloro complexes