A facile preparation of two new isostructural metal–organochalcogen clusters from simple starting materials: Sonochemical synthesis, X-ray structures and spectroscopic remarks

In this work, the formation and characterisation of two new isostructural metal–organochalcogen clusters from simple starting materials was investigated. A sonochemical synthesis was performed in a one-pot procedure without the isolation of synthetic intermediates. This methodology offers a new approach to prepare cluster compounds, and this experiment led to the formation of [(PhTe)12Hg8(S)X2(Py)2]·Py (X = Br, I; Py = Pyridine) in good yield. The X-ray analyses reveal that the framework of the clusters contains a similar [Hg8(μ4-S)Te12] core as the central unit. The sulphur atom present in the core of both structures has a tetrahedral coordination geometry achieved by four S–Hg(II) bonds. The complete characterisation of the synthesised materials also includes elemental analyses, IR spectroscopy and UV–Vis absorption data.