Trimethyltin hydroxide is an organotin compound with the chemical formula . It is a white crystalline solid.
Synthesis Trimethyltin hydroxide can be synthesized by reaction of trimethyltin chloride with a strong base in methanol.
It can also be synthesized by hydrolysis of trimethyltin chloride and purification by sublimation.
Structure
Solid trimethyltin hydroxide is a coordination polymer. It forms orthorhombic crystals. The room temperature crystal structure of trimethyltin hydroxide comprises a total of 32 crystallographically independent units arranged in four independent coordination polymer strands. Each strand is an infinite linear chain of units, where in each unit Sn is approximately trigonal bipyramidal, surrounded by three methyl groups at the equator and two hydroxyl groups at the poles, where oxygens are shared between the units. The hydroxide groups play role as bridges between the units.https://journals.iucr.org/a/issues/2005/a1/00/a33185/a33185.pdf Below the crystal structure undergoes phase transition.
Uses Trimethyltin hydroxide is a reagent used for the cleavage of nonhindered alkyl esters. It is a method that is used for mild, efficient and selective hydrolysis of esters to produce corresponding carboxylic acids. Trimethyltin hydroxide is used in the synthesis of modified thymines, which is useful as inhibitors of RNase A. It reacts with 2,2-disubstituted benzothiazolines to produce trialkyltin derivatives of sulfur containing Schiff base complexes.
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