Solid-State Structures of Base-Free Indenyllithium and Fluorenylsodium

The solid-state structures of two important organometallic reagents, base-free indenyllithium and base-free fluorenylsodium, were determined by high-resolution X-ray powder diffraction experiments. Indenyllithium crystallizes as an infinite chain in the fashion of a “multidecker structure”, whereas fluorenylsodium forms the saltlike structure Na 2 [NaFl 3 ], containing the novel trigonal [NaFl 3 ] 2 - anion.