Notes. Crystal structure of [Ni2Ru3(η-C5H5)2(CO)9(µ5-PPh)], an open square-pyramidal cluster obtained via condensation of co-ordinatively unsaturated [Ru3(µ-H)(CO)9(µ-PPh2)] with [Ni2(η-C5H5)2(CO)2]

Abstract

The novel pentanuclear cluster [Ni₂Ru₃(η-C₅H₅)₂(CO)₉(µ₅-PPh)](2) has been obtained via‘condensation’ of [Ni₂(η-C₅H₅)₂(CO)₂] with the 46-electron complex [Ru₃H(CO)₉(µ-PPh₂)](1) and reductive elimination of benzene. Its structure has been determined by X-ray diffraction methods. Crystals are monoclinic, space group P2₁/a with a= 21.122(6), b= 12.656(2), c= 21.149(8)Å, β= 99.53(2)°, and Z= 8. The structure has been solved from diffractometer data by direct and Fourier methods and refined by full-matrix least squares to R= 0.056 for 4 318 observed reflections. Two crystallographically independent, but almost identical, pentanuclear clusters are present in which the metals are in an open square-pyramidal arrangement with the phosphorus from the PPh ligand interacting with all of them.