Abstract
THE interest in dimethylmercury in connexion with studies of environmental pollution prompts us to report a convenient and comparatively safe method for handling this volatile and extremely toxic compound. We have found that dimethylmercury may be stored, until ready for release, in the form of an inclusion compound, the organometallic guest being accommodated in the relatively large, approximately hour-glass shaped, cavity1,2 formed by the clathrate3 host, 4-p-hydroxyPhenyl-2,2,4-trimethylthiochroman (Structure I). This represents the first successful attempt to prepare a stable inclusion compound containing dimethylmercury, although diethylmercury and longer chain mercury dialkyls have been reported4 to form inclusion compounds with urea; diethylmercury has also been included5 in the tri-o-thymotide chanel structure.
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CROSS, R., MCKENDRICK, J. & MACNICOL, D. Clathration as a Practical Method for Handling Dimethylmercury. Nature 245, 146 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/245146a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/245146a0
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