Nicholas J. Long, Jeff Martin, Giuliana Opromolla, Andrew J. P. White, David J. Williams and Piero Zanello
A novel phosphorus/sulfur-substituted ferrocenylene ligand, 1-(diphenylphosphino)-1′-(methylsulfanyl)ferrocene has been synthesized by two routes and fully characterised. The co-ordination chemistry of this species and analogous phosphorus/phosphorus- and sulfur/sulfur-substituted ferrocenylene ligands, 1,1′-bis(diphenylphosphino)ferrocene, 1,1′-bis(methylsulfanyl)ferrocene and 1,1′-bis(isopropylthio)ferrocene has been demonstrated by reaction with copper and silver tetrakis(acetonitrile) salts to form a series of metal–ferrocenylene complexes where the metal atom acts as a bridging group of two ring systems. Crystal structure determinations have been carried out on [Ag{(C5H4P(C6H5)2)2Fe}2]BF4 and [Cu{(C5H4SCH3)2Fe}2]PF6 and illustrate that the former shows a distorted tetrahedral geometry around silver and a significant asymmetry in the geometries of the two pseudo six-membered chelate rings and that the latter possesses S4 symmetry with a pronounced exo orientation of the four methyl groups.