Catalytic dehydrogenative coupling of diorganotindihydrides by lanthanide diamide complexes

Despite the fact that sterically demanding 1,2‐dihydrodistannanes are versatile synthons, their synthesis is typically a tedious, low‐yield procedure, which limits synthetic applications. Looking for generally applicable and high‐yield routes, we examined the dehydrogenative coupling of sterically crowded diorganotindihydrides. Herein, we report the application of lanthanide diamide‐based catalysts (CH2)3‐1,3‐[N(Dipp)]2LnBr (Ln = La,Ce,Nd,Dy) to generate polystannanes and distannanes, depending on the size of the aromatic substituents. Reaction of tBu2SnH2 resulted in the quantitative formation of 1,1,2,2‐tetra‐tert‐butyldistannane while conversion of sterically encumbered Mes2SnH2 yielded 1,1,2,2‐tetramesityldistannane.