Phosphine–Stibine and Phosphine–Stiborane peri-Substituted Donor–Acceptor Complexes
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Referee report on the manuscript molbank-2409976 entitled "Phosphine-Stibine and Phosphine-Stiborane peri-Substituted Donor-Acceptor Complexes" submitted by Jan U. Bergsch, Alexandra M. Z. Slawin, Petr Kilian and Brian A. Chalmers,
The authors present the synthesis, and structural analysis of two phosphine-stibine and phosphine-stiborane donor-acceptor complexes.
Concerning the descriptive aspect of the investigated problem the paper fulfills the goals proposed by the authors. The reaction mechanism is plausible and the isolated intermediate and product are solid argument in its favor. The structure of the both intermediate and product was characterized by multinuclear (1H, 13C and 31P) NMR spectroscopy, and their molecular structures resolved by single crystal X-ray diffraction.
Nevertheless, I have two minor remarks:
- On the 3-rd page, at line 86 the authors written that the compound 1 was obtained as pale-yellow powder although on page 2, line 66 the same compound was presented as white powder. I think that at line 86, compound 2 was obtained as pale-yellow powder.
- The authors should include also, in the Scheme 1, the preparation of the (p-tol)3Sb and 5-bromo-6-(diisopropylphosphino)acenaphthene (P) precursors to facilitate the tracking of the discussed reactions.
Having in view this consideration I recommended the publication of this article in Molbank after minor revision.
Author Response
Dear Reviewers,
Thank you kindly for your comments on our manuscript and for your input. It is much appreciated. Please see below our replies to your specific comments. Our responses are in bold to your comments.
On the 3-rd page, at line 86 the authors written that the compound 1 was obtained as pale-yellow powder although on page 2, line 66 the same compound was presented as white powder. I think that at line 86, compound 2 was obtained as pale-yellow powder.
Yes, this should read “2 was obtained as a pale-yellow powder”. The manuscript has been updated to reflect this.
The authors should include also, in the Scheme 1, the preparation of the (p-tol)3Sb and 5-bromo-6-(diisopropylphosphino)acenaphthene (P) precursors to facilitate the tracking of the discussed reactions.
Doing this made scheme 1 very crowded, so instead I have split the synthesis of (p-tol)SbCl2 into one scheme (Scheme 1) and the synthesis of 1 and 2 beginning from 5-6-dibromoacenaphthene to scheme 2. The manuscript has been updated to reflect this.
Reviewer 2 Report
In this work, Chalmers and coworkers describe the synthesis of peri-substituted P-Sb acenaphthenes. The authors present the synthetic protocols used and show evidence of the final structures with X-ray geometries and NMR spectra. In my opinion, the article will be suitable for publication after the following minor edits:
- In Figure 1, the same number of decimal digits should be used in all the examples (i.e., C, E and G show three digits and the other examples show four digits).
- The (WBI) abbreviation should go after Wiberg Bond Index in line 26.
- Include yields and time in Scheme 1.
- It is not clear how the authors assigned all the 1H and 13C signals in the ESI (Figures S3, 5, 8 and 10). A short comment might help.
Author Response
Dear Reviewers,
Thank you kindly for your comments on our manuscript and for your input. It is much appreciated. Please see below our replies to your specific comments. Our responses are in bold to your comments.
In Figure 1, the same number of decimal digits should be used in all the examples (i.e., C, E and G show three digits and the other examples show four digits)
These values are taken direct from the publication (Chem. Eur. J., 2015, 21, 7520). The values vary in accuracy (3 vs. 4 dp) due to the quality of the X-ray structures.
The (WBI) abbreviation should go after Wiberg Bond Index in line 26
Indeed it should, thank you for spotting this. The manuscript has been updated to reflect this change.
Include yields and time in Scheme 1.
Yields and times have now been included in Schemes 1 and 2.
It is not clear how the authors assigned all the 1H and 13C signals in the ESI (Figures S3, 5, 8 and 10). A short comment might help.
These were made by using 2D data, (HH COSY, HC HSQC, HC HMBC). There is a short statement in the main manuscript “All NMR spectra were recorded using a JEOL GSX Delta (270 MHz) or Bruker Avance III (500 MHz) spectrometer at 25 °C. Assignments of 1H and 13C spectra were made in conjunction with appropriate 2D spectra”. I have now added this statement to the Supporting Information.
