Investigations on organolead compounds V. Lead---lead bond cleavage reactions of hexaphenyldilead

Abstract

It has been shown that a number of nucleophilic and weakly electrophilic reagents (organolithium and organomagnesium compounds, metallic lithium, potassium permanganate, sodium ethoxide, diaryl disulphides, sulphur, ozone, hypochlorous acid and iodine/iodide) selectively cleave the lead---lead bond of hexaphenyldilead. No lead---phenyl bond cleavage occurs with these reagents. The reactions with lithium, potassium permanganate, diaryl disulphides, ozone, hypochlorous acid and iodine/iodide form useful synthetic procedures for the preparation of triphenyl-lead derivatives from the readily available hexaphenyldilead.