Autoprotolysis of the metastable acid (C6F5)3BOPPh2OH, prepared in situ by the reaction of the rather weak Brønsted acid Ph2PO2H with the strong Lewis acid B(C6F5)3, gave rise to the formation of the eight-membered ring [Ph2POB(C6F5)2O]2 and C6F5H. The conjugate base was isolated as stable sodium crown ether salt [Na(15-crown-5)][Ph2PO2B(C6F5)3].

The previously known dimeric arylantimony oxides (Ph3SbO)2 and [2,6-(Me2NCH2)2C6H3SbO]2 were disaggregated by the Lewis acid B(C6F5)3 giving rise to the formation of the Lewis pair complexes Ph3SbOB(C6F5)3 and 2,6-(Me2NCH2)2C6H3SbOB(C6F5)3 having short bipolar single Sb-O bonds.

The previously reported bis(6-diphenylphosphinoacenaphth-5-yl)mercury (1) was used as ligand for the preparation of the copper(I) complexes, 1·CuCl and [1·Cu(NCMe)]BF, which were characterized by multinuclear NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. DFT calculations employing topological analysis of the electron and electron pair densities within the AIM and ELI-D space-partitioning schemes revealed significant metallophilic Hg···Cu interactions. Evaluation of noncovalent bonding aspects according to the noncovalent interaction (NCI) index was applied not only for the Cu complexes 1·CuCl and [1·Cu(NCMe)]BF but also for the previously reported Ag and Au complexes, namely, [1·MCl] (M = Ag, Au) and [1·M(NCMe)] (M = Ag, n = 2; M = Au, n = 0), and facilitated the assignment of attractive dispersive Hg···M interactions with the Hg···Cu contacts being comparable to the Hg···Ag but weaker than the Hg···Au interactions. The localization of the attractive noncovalent bonding regions increases in the order Cu < Ag < Au.

Transmetallation of Pb(OAc) with R Hg (1), followed by treatment with HCl in Et O, provided RPbCl (2), the first kinetically stabilized monoorganolead trihalide that resists reductive elimination under ambient conditions. The kinetic stabilisation relies on an intramolecularly coordinating O-donor substituent (R=6-Ph P(O)-Ace-5-). The gram-scale preparation of 2 was key for the synthesis of unsymmetrically substituted diaryllead dichlorides RR'PbCl (3 a, R'=Ph; 3 b, R'=4-MeOC H ; 3 c, R'=4-Me NC H ).

The reaction of Ph2P(O)H with B(C6F5)3 provided the Lewis pair complex Ph2(H)POB(C6F5)3 (5) containing a bipolar +P–O–B– linkage. The reaction of 5 with [(tht)AuCl] (tht = tetrahydrothiophene) proceeded with elimination of HCl and formation of [{(C6F5)3BOPPh2}Au(tht)] (6), which can be regarded as push–pull complex between a zwitterionic OPPh2Au unit and a hard Lewis acid, B(C6F5)3, coordinating at the oxygen atom, and a soft Lewis base, tht, coordinating at the gold atom.