Atom-transfer within the coordination sphere of early–late heterobimetallic complexes: rapid deoxygenation of sulfoxides at low temperatures

Abstract

Extremely rapid oxygen transfer from sulfoxides to a carbonyl ligand to give the corresponding thioether and coordinated CO₂ is observed in the reactions of unsupported Zr–Ru heterodimetallic complexes with sulfoxides; this is interpreted to arise from the cooperative reactivity of the two complementary metal complex fragments bound to each other through a highly polar metal–metal bond.