Dibromo­diphenyl­stannane: isolated centrosymmetric dimers as a new structure motif for the inter­molecular association of diorganotin(IV) dihalides

In the crystalline state, the low-melting title compound [common name: diphenyl­tin(IV) dibromide], [SnBr₂(C₆H₅)₂], consists of distorted tetra­hedral mol­ecules with compressed halide and enlarged carbon opening angles of 102.741 (9) and 123.53 (8)°, respectively, and Sn—C and Sn—Br bond lengths of 2.109 (2)/2.113 (2) and 2.4710 (3)/2.4947 (3) Å, respectively. Inter­molecular Sn...Br inter­actions, typical for diorganotin(IV) dihalides, R₂SnHal₂ (with Hal = Cl, Br, I), and sterically less demanding organic groups lead to the formation of a hitherto unknown association pattern consisting of centrosymmetric dimers with an anti­parallel orientation of the dipole moments and two weak inter­molecular Sn...Br distances of 3.8482 (3) Å between one of the two Br atoms and its neighbouring Sn atom, and vice versa. The second Br atom is not involved in inter­molecular inter­actions and lies somewhat outside the association plane that, therefore, is not coplanar [inter­planar angle = 1.750 (2)°] with the tin–halide plane. The new structure motif of inter­molecular tin–halide inter­action can be classified as 2a_i, which indicates the number of mol­ecules (i.e. `2') composing the oligomer, the anti­parallel orientation (i.e. `a') of their dipole moments and the centre of symmetry (i.e. `i') giving rise to the association pattern.