Reactions of (diethyldithiocarbamato)halogenotellurium(II); crystal structures of R[Te{S<inf>2</inf>CNEt<inf>2</inf>}X<inf>2</inf>] [R = NEt<inf>4</inf>, X = I; R = H(phen)<inf>2</inf> (phen = 1,10-phenanthroline), X = I or Br]

The reactions of (diethyldithiocarbamato)halogenotellurium(II) with thiourea, benzimidazole-2-thiol, halides (Cl-, Br-, I-) and 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) have been studied. The products were principally characterized by elemental analyses, IR and 1H NMR spectroscopies. Novel anionic (diethyldithiocarbamato)dihalogenotellurate(II) complexes resulted from the reactions of Te(S2CNEt2)X (X = Br or I) with NEt4X (X = Br or I) and phen. The crystal structures of the complexes [NEt4][Te(S2CNEt2)I2], [H(phen)2][Te(S2CNEt2)I2] and [H(phen)2][Te(S2CNEt2)Br2] have been determined. In the anions tellurium is co-ordinated to two sulfur atoms of the dithiocarbamate in an almost isobidentate manner and to two halides in an overall planar trapezoidal geometry. In [NEt4][Te(S2CNEt2)I2] the two iodides are almost equidistant to tellurium with distances of 3.079(1) and 3.072(1) Å, whereas in [H(phen)2][Te(S2CNEt2)I2] the two Te-I distances are 3.151(1) and 3.038(1) Å and in [H(phen)2][Te(S2CNEt2)Br2] the two Te-Br distances are 2.911(1) and 2.986(1) Å. In [H(phen)2]+ the proton is bound to one of the nitrogen atoms of a phenanthroline group and the two phen groups are held together by three hydrogen bonds, of which two are of the interesting type C-H ⋯ N.