Intramolecular germylene, stannylene, and plumbylene Lewis pairs were reacted with hexanal and yielded the cyclic addition products only with the germanium and tin reagents. In further reactivity studies, the hydroboration of aldehydes and ketones catalyzed by intramolecular germylene, stannylene, and plumbylene Lewis pairs was studied. In the case of the cyclic germylene Lewis pair, the product of the oxidative addition of pinacolborane at the germylene moiety was observed. According to stoichiometric as well as catalytic experiments, the intramolecular germylene Lewis pair acts as a catalyst in the hydroboration of aldehydes and ketones. The homologous stannylene Lewis pair forms a reactive tin hydride during the catalysis, which can also act as a catalyst in this transformation.

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Intramolecular stannylene-based Lewis pairs with phosphine Lewis bases were synthesized at the ortho position in benzene or the peri position in acenaphthene. The spectroscopic data of the Lewis pairs are discussed, and the reactivity toward unsaturated hydrocarbons and organic azides is presented.

A series of benzyl(diphenylphosphino) and o-phenyl(diphenlyphosphino) substituted germylenes and plumbylenes were synthesized by nucleophilic substitution between the respective lithium reagent and tetrylene halide. The Lewis pairs were characterized by X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy. The reactivity of the tetrylenes was investigated with respect to azide addition. In the germylene case, the germaniumimide was formed as the kinetically controlled product, which rearranges upon heating to give the phosphinimide. The stannylene and plumbylene derivatives react with adamantylazide to give the azide adducts. 1-Pentene reacts diastereoselectively with the phosphagermirane to give a cyclic addition product. Trimethysilylacetylene shows an addition with the benzylphosphino-substituted germylene and plumbylene to give the cycloheteropentene molecules. The addition product between phenylacetylene and the four membered Ge-P adduct shows after addition at room temperature a 1,4-phenylmigration to give a cyclic phosphine. Alkylnitrene insertion into a Ge-C bond of the alkyne addition product of the phosphagermirane was found in reaction with adamantylazide.

The coordination chemistry of cyclic stannylene-based intramolecular Lewis pairs is presented. The P→Sn adducts were treated with [Ni(COD)2] and [Pd(PCy3)2] (COD = 1,5-cyclooctadiene, PCy3 = tricyclohexylphosphine). In the isolated coordination compounds the stannylene moiety acts either as an acceptor or a donor ligand. Examples of a dynamic switch between these two coordination modes of the P-Sn ligand are illustrated and the structures in the solid state together with heteronuclear NMR spectroscopic findings are discussed. In the case of a Ni(0) complex, (119)Sn Mössbauer spectroscopy of the uncoordinated and coordinated phosphastannirane ligand is presented.