A Chain Aggregate of Methyllithium Tetramers

Abstract

The reactions of 1,3,5-trimethyl-1,3,5-triazacyclohexane, TMTAC, with methyllithium (MeLi) in the absence or presence of the Lewis acid trimethylaluminum (AlMe3) give different kinds of adducts but do not lead to deprotonation of the heterocycle. With MeLi, an aggregation motif of endless linear chains of MeLi tetramers is obtained, in which the three nonconnected lithium atoms are saturated by binding to only one of the three nitrogen atoms of the tridentate terminal TMTAC ligands; in contrast, in the presence of AlMe3, methyllithium is completely disaggregated to give a [Li(TMTAC)2][AlMe4] salt with six-coordinated lithium atoms.