On the importance of Pb center dot center dot center dot X (X = O, N, S, Br) tetrel bonding interactions in a series of tetra- and hexa-coordinated Pb(ii) compounds

Five new Pb(ii) complexes of hydrazone-based and Schiff-based ligands and three different anionic co-ligands (azide, thiocyanate and bromide) have been synthesized and characterized by structural, analytical and spectroscopic methods. This variety of ligands can coordinate to the Pb(ii) metal center in a tridentate or tetradentate fashion via a different combination of any of nitrogen, oxygen and sulphur donor atoms. Moreover, the organic ligands can be in mono-deprotonated or neutral forms. By using single-crystal X-ray crystallography, we show that the synthesized complexes aggregate into larger supramolecular entities due to the formation of noncovalent tetrel bonding interactions. The Pb(ii) center is hemidirectionally coordinated even in those complexes where the coordination number is six. Consequently, this is sterically ideal for establishing tetrel bonding interactions with electron-rich nitrogen, bromide or sulphur atoms. These contacts are significantly larger than the sums of the covalent radii. Hence, they can be described as non-covalent tetrel bonding interactions. They interconnect the covalently bonded units into supramolecular assemblies (dimers or tetramers). The contribution of contacts involving the Pb atom has been studied using Hirshfeld surface analysis and fingerprint plots. We have analysed the supramolecular assemblies observed in the solid state by means of DFT calculations and characterized them using Bader's theory of atoms-in-molecules.