Reactions of tetrakis(trifluoromethyl) diphosphine and bis(trifluoromethyl) phosphine with ruthenium carbonyl clusters; X-ray structure of tetraruthenium carbonyl cluster derivatives

Abstract

Reaction of [Ru3(CO)12] with (CF3)2P-P(CF3)2 in p-xylene at 140°C yielded the compounds [Ru4(CO)13{μ-P(CF3)2}2] (1), [Ru4(CO)14{μ-P(CF3)2}2] (2) and [Ru4(CO)11{μ-P(CF3)2}4] (3). Reaction with [(μ-H)4Ru4(CO)12] under similar conditions yielded [(μ-H)3Ru4(CO)12{μ-P(CF3)2}] (4). All four compounds have been characterised by X-ray crystallography. The fluxional behaviour of the hydrides in 4 has also been studied by variable-temperature NMR spectroscopy. Compounds 1, 2 and 4 were also obtained from the reactions of [Ru3(CO)12] with (CF3)2PH in dichloromethane at 80°C.