Bis(Pentafluorophenyl)Phenothiazylborane - An Intramolecular Frustrated Lewis Pair Catalyst For Stannane Dehydrocoupling

We synthesized a novel Lewis acidic aminoborane containing a phenothiazyl substituent and demonstrated its potential to catalytically promote the dehydrocoupling of tin hydrides. The observed reactivity would imply a homolytic frustrated Lewis pair type mechanism, however computational analysis suggests a heterolytic mechanism for this reaction. This result represents one of the first frustrated Lewis pair systems to dehydrocouple stannanes in a heterolytic fashion.