Benzyl-Substituted Tin Chalcogenides. Efficient Single-Source Precursors for Tin Sulfide, Tin Selenide, and Sn(SxSe1-x) Solid Solutions

The benzyl-substituted tin chalcogenides (Bn 3 Sn) 2 S ( 1 ), (Bn 2 SnS) 3 ( 2 ), (Bn 3 Sn) 2 Se ( 3 ), and (Bn 2 SnSe) 3 ( 4 ), prepared from the corresponding benzyltin chloride and anhydrous sodium chalcogenide in THF, are convenient single-source precursors for tin sulfide or tin selenide. Pyrolysis (450 °C) of these precursors gave gray or black powders and bibenzyl as the major products. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of the powders from the linear compounds 1 and 3 showed that SnS and SnSe were produced along with elemental tin, as expected from the precursor stoichiometry. In contrast, the solids generated by cyclics 2 and 4 contained only SnS and SnSe respectively. Solid solutions of the formula Sn(S x Se 1- x ) were prepared by heating mixtures of 2 and 4 . The value of x could be controlled by varying the ratio of 2 to 4 . Combustion analysis showed less than 1% residual carbon in all tin sulfide and tin selenide samples.