‘Side-on’ co-ordination of vinylidene at a dimolybdenum centre
Abstract
Ethyne reacts with [Mo2(CO)4(η-C5Me5)2] under u.v. irradiation to yield [Mo2(CO)4(µ-η1,η2-CCH2)(η-C5Me5)2], containing vinylidene bound side-on to the dimolybdenum centre as a four-electron ligand; this new species undergoes thermal isomerisation to µ-ethyne, reacts with diazomethane to give µ-allene, and is step-wise protonated to afford µ-vinyl then µ-ethylidene.