On the synthesis of new alkoxide and aryloxide clusters with alkali, alkaline earth and lanthanide metal ions

This thesis reports some new crystal structures of alkali, alkaline earth and lanthanide metals
ions in non polar aprotic solvents. First, structures of some compounds which have been used
as starting materials are described. Then, this thesis reports crystal structure of cluster
compounds obtained during this work using alkoxide and/or aryloxide reagents. A particular
interest is related on the similar chemical behavior of alkaline earth and lanthanide(II) metal
ions in non polar aprotic solvents, both in terms of starting material and cluster compounds.
Chapter A gives a brief introduction to superconductor materials and the different strategies
employed in order to obtain good precursors with a particular interest on the group 1 and 2
alkoxide and aryloxide compounds reported in the literature. Chapter A also presents the
general synthetic procedure used in this work.
Chapter B described the different alkali, alkaline earth and lanthanide compounds obtained
during this PhD.
In a first part, it shows the importance of the coordination sphere of the alkaline earth starting
materials on its reactivity. It also presents the similar chemical behavior observed between
alkaline earth and lanthanide(II) metal ions in non polar aprotic solvents.
In a second part, this chapter presents some new homometallic alkali metal clusters with
aryloxide ligands.
Finally some new homo and heterometallic cluster compounds are presented, highlighting the
importance of the alkali earth metal, the R-group of the “alkoxide” reagents, the alkali metal
and the solvent on the crystal structure of the final compounds.
Chapter C summarizes related work and put some fundamental questions. It gives the
conclusion to this work and a general overview of the complexes synthesised in this thesis.