A series of meta- and para-phenylene-bridged Bi(III)
n
and Bi(V)
n
compounds (n ≥ 2) have
been synthesized. Reaction of Ph2BiX (X = Cl, OSO2CF3) with p-Li2C6H4, p-(BrMg)2C6H4,
or p- and m-(Me2S·Cu)2C6H4 generated in situ from dibromobenzenes gave the corresponding
para- and meta-phenylene-bridged Bi
n
−bismuthanes, Ph2BiC6H4BiPh2 (2), Ph2BiC6H4Bi(Ph)C6H4BiPh2 (3), and Ph2BiC6H4Bi(Ph)C6H4Bi(Ph)C6H4BiPh2 (4), in 2−30% yields. Bi
n
-bismuthanes 2−4 were oxidatively chlorinated by SO2Cl2 to yield the Bi
n
-bismuth polychlorides 5−7, in which all pentavalent bismuth atoms bore three aryl groups and two chlorine
atoms. Compounds 2−7 showed λmax at around 244−249 and 285−290 nm in the UV−vis
spectra, suggesting that the phenylene bridges did not perturb significantly the σ- and
π-transitions of the aromatic systems in these bismuth oligomers. Ortho-lithiation directed
by the sulfonyl group was employed for the one-pot preparation of highly branched Bi
n
-bismuthanes; successive treatment of Ar3Bi 9a with 3 equiv of t-BuLi and Ar2BiI (10b) (Ar
= 2-Et2NSO2C6H4) afforded m-phenylene-bridged Bi
n
-bismuthanes, Ar2Ar‘Bi (11a), ArAr‘2Bi (12a), and Ar‘3Bi (13a) in 2−49% yields (Ar‘ = 3-Ar2Bi-2-Et2NSO2C6H3). Treatment of
ortho-lithiated (2-t-BuSO2C6H4)(p-Tol)2Bi (14) with p-Tol2BiCl gave sulfone-substituted Bi2-bismuthane 15, which was converted to the corresponding Bi2-chlorodiarylbismuthane (16)
by the Bi−C cleavage reaction. An X-ray diffraction analysis of 16 showed that both bismuth
centers have a distorted trigonal pyramidal geometry weakly coordinated by the neighboring
sulfonyl-oxygen atoms. The symmetrically branched Bi4-bismuthane 13a was successfully
converted to a dendritic Bi10-bismuthane 17 in 20% isolated yield by successive treatment
with t-BuLi and 10b. The reaction between ortho-lithiated 9a and ArBiI2 (10c) followed by
GPC separation afforded two fractions of oligomeric Bi
n
-bismuthanes, the vapor depression
measurement of which revealed that the average numbers of the bismuth atoms present
therein were 7 and 16, respectively. UV−vis spectra of 9a, 11a, 12a, 13a, and 17 exhibited
no bathochromic shift; the inefficient π-electron delocalization would probably be due to the
twisted geometry between aromatic rings, as inferred from the X-ray structure of the related
Bi2-bismuthane 16. The extinction coefficients of these phenylene-bridged Bi
n
-bismuthanes
were found to increase with increasing number of bismuth atoms.