Organic tin compounds or stannanes are compounds based on tin with hydrocarbon substituents. The first organic tin compound was diethyltin diiodide discovered by Edward Frankland. The field grew rapidly in the 20th century, especially after the Grignard reagents were found that can be used to produce Sn-C bonds. The field has a wealth of applications in the continuing activities of industrial and research laboratories.
Applications
Industry: Tributyltin (TBT) is a term for a class of organic tin compounds. A prominent example is tributyltin oxide. TBT is used as a biocide in anti-fouling paints, commonly referred to as bottom paint for the hull of ocean-going vessels. Bottom paint helps improve the performance and durability of the ship as it reduces the rate of biofouling. TBT is also used as preservative for wood coatings, carpets and canvas. Disubstituted organic tin such as dibutyltin and dioctyltin are widely used in consumer products and as stabilizers in plastics. Triphenyltin (TPT) has been used as an agricultural pesticide. Since the 1960s, biphenyltin compounds along with tributyltin compounds have been widely used as an algicide and molluscicide in anti-fouling products.
Biochemistry: Metal complexes have been successfully used to treat many human diseases. Studies on the application of these complexes are currently considered as one of the most widespread areas in biomedicine and inorganic chemistry. As a result, tin is being studied in depth and helps improve the problems associated with the use of platinum compounds as anti-cancer drugs. Recent studies have shown very promising in vitro anti-cancer properties of organotin compounds against a wide range of human tumor cell lines. In some cases, organotin (IV) derivatives also show acceptable anti-proliferative as a new chemotherapeutic agent. Triphenyltin (IV) complexes show cytotoxic activity against tumor cell lines, human adenocarcinoma HeLa, human myeloid leukemia K562, human malignant melanoma Fem-x, and normal immunocompetent cells, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells PBMC.
Organic chemistry: When hydrogen in an organic molecule RH is replaced by a main group organometallic substituent M, the product RM frequently shows chemical properties similar to those of the parent, and often to an enhanced degree. And organotin group can be used as the main group organometallic substituent M. The enhanced reactivity of the R-Sn bond compared with the R-H bond that is usually observed. Cyclopentadienyltin compounds can undergo the reaction in the presence of UV light to generate the cyclopentadienyl and stannyl radicals. The reaction has been used to study the substituent effects in cyclopentadienyl radicals.
