Synthesis and chemistry of tris(2-pyridyl)phosphine and bis(2-pyridyl)phenylphosphine complexes of mercury(II) X (X = Br, Cl) and X-ray crystal structural determination of [HgBr2(PPh(2-py)2)2]

Mercury(II) halide complexes [HgX2(P(2-py)3)2] (X = Br (1), Cl (2)) and [HgX2(PPh(2-py)2)2] (X = Br (3), Cl (4)) containing P(2-py)3 and PPh(2-py)2 ligands (P(2-py)3 is tris(2-pyridyl)phosphine and PPh(2-py)2 is bis(2-pyridyl)phenylphosphine) were synthesized in nearly quantitative yield by reaction of corresponding mercury(II) halide and appropriate ligands. The synthesized complexes are fully characterized by elemental analysis, melting point determination, IR, 1H, and 31P-NMR spectroscopies. Furthermore, the crystal structure of [HgBr2(PPh(2-py)2)2] determined by X-ray diffraction is also reported.