Hyperfine Interact (2008) 185:95–102 DOI 10.1007/s10751-008-9817-3 119 Sn Mössbauer characterization of self assembled organotin(IV) complexes with Schiff bases containing amino acetate skeletons Smita Basu · Archana Mizar · Tushar S. Basu Baul · Eleonora Rivarola Published online: 5 October 2008 © Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2008 Abstract Several organotin(IV) compounds, viz., diorganotin(IV) compounds of the types Ph 2 SnLH (monomer), n Bu 2 SnLH·OH 2 (monomer), [Me 2 SnLH·OH 2 ] 2 (centrosymmetric dimer), [ n Bu 2 SnLH] 3 (cyclic trinuclear), [Ph 2 SnLH] n (polymer), {[ n Bu 2 Sn(LH)] 2 O} 2 (centrosymmetric tetranuclear), dinuclear di-/tri-mixed organ- otin(IV) compounds Ph 2 SnLH·Ph 3 SnCl (monomer) and triorganotin(IV) com- pounds of the types [Bz 3 SnLH] 2 (centrosymmetric dimer) and [Me 3 SnL 1 H] n (Polymer) (LH = Schiff base carboxylate) have been studied in the solid state at liquid nitrogen temperature using 119 Sn Mössbauer spectroscopy. The tin coordina- tion geometry of the compounds determined from crystallography was correlated with the 119 Sn Mössbauer results. Keywords Organotin(IV) carboxylates · Schiff base · 119 Sn Mössbauer spectroscopy 1 Introduction The increasing interest in organotin(IV) carboxylates of substituted benzoic acids in recent years has, to a large extent, been prompted by their new structural diversity [1, 2] and broad therapeutic activity [3]. The structural diversity arises owing to a variety of factors, one of the more important being the capacity of the Lewis acidic tin centers to increase their coordination numbers by intra- and/or inter-molecular hypervalent interactions [4, 5]. Thus, whereas the valency requirements of tin are S. Basu · A. Mizar · T. S. Basu Baul (B ) Department of Chemistry, North-Eastern Hill University, NEHU Permanent Campus, Umshing, Shillong 793022, India e-mail: basubaul@nehu.ac.in, basubaul@hotmail.com E. Rivarola Dipartimento di Chimica Inorganica e Analitica “Stanislao Cannizzaro”, Università di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Parco D’Orleans II, Edificio 17, 90128 Palermo, Italy