The interconversion of quasi-planar butterfly and tetrahedral tetraruthenium cluster geometries: X-ray crystal structure of tetrahedral [H2ru4(CO)10(µ-PPh2)2]
Abstract
The quasi-planar 64-electron butterfly cluster [Ru4(CO)13(µ-PPh2)2] reacts with dihydrogen under photolysis giving the 60-electron tetrahedral cluster [H2Ru4(CO)10(µ-PPh2)2], a transformation which can be reversed under a pressure of carbon monoxide; the two hydride ligands in the unsymmetric [H2Ru4(CO)10(µ-PPh2)2] have been located via a single crystal X-ray analysis.