Abstract

An unusual series of germylenes and stannylenes with homoleptic symmetric and unsymmetric N-substituted sulfonimidamide ligands PhSO(NiPr)(NHiPr) 1 and PhSO(NMes)(NHiPr) 2 have been prepared by protonolysis reaction of Lappert's metallylenes [M(HMDS)(2)] (M = Ge or Sn) with two equivalents of the appropriate sulfonimidamide. The homoleptic germylenes [PhSO(NiPr)(2)](2)Ge 3 and [PhSO(NMes)(NiPr)](2)Ge 4, and stannylenes [PhSO(NiPr)(2)](2)Sn 5 and [PhSO(NMes)(NiPr)](2)Sn 6 were fully characterized by NMR spectroscopy and by X-ray diffraction analysis. DFT calculations have been performed to understand the electronic properties brought by the sulfonimidamide ligand.