Issue 9, 2005

Synthetic, spectroscopic, computational and structural studies of some 13-vertex ruthenacarboranes

Abstract

Reduction of 1,2-closo-C2B10H12 followed by treatment with [RuCl2(p-cymene)]2 (p-cymene = C6H4MeiPr-1,4) affords the 13-vertex ruthenacarborane 4-(p-cymene)-4,1,6-closo-RuC2B10H12, characterised both spectroscopically and, in two crystalline forms, crystallographically. Although asymmetric in the solid state, having a docosahedral cage architecture with cage C atoms at vertices 1 and 6, this species clearly has Cs symmetry on the NMR timescale at room temperature. However, the fluctional process in operation can be arrested at low temperature, and an activation energy of 43.1 kJ mol−1 is estimated. A computational study of the related species 4-(η-C6H6)-4,1,6-closo-RuC2B10H12 reveals that the fluctionality is due to a double diamond–square–diamond process, first suggested by Hawthorne et al for the analogous CpCo species. These calculations yield an activation energy of 40.4 kJ mol−1, in excellent agreement with that derived from experiment. Reduction of 1,2-Ph2-1,2-closo-C2B10H10 followed by treatment with [RuCl2(η-C6H6)]2 or [RuCl2(p-cymene)]2 yields the analogous species 1,6-Ph2-4-(η-C6H6)-4,1,6-closo-RuC2B10H10 and 1,6-Ph2-4-(p-cymene)-4,1,6-closo-RuC2B10H10, respectively. These C,C-diphenyl compounds were again studied spectroscopically and crystallographically, the p-cymene species again showing two crystalline modifications. In contrast to their CpCo and Cp*Co analogues all three ruthenacarboranes do not undergo isomerisation in refluxing toluene.

Graphical abstract: Synthetic, spectroscopic, computational and structural studies of some 13-vertex ruthenacarboranes

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
20 Phe 2005
Accepted
22 Ube 2005
First published
11 Mme 2005

Dalton Trans., 2005, 1716-1721

Synthetic, spectroscopic, computational and structural studies of some 13-vertex ruthenacarboranes

A. Burke, D. Ellis, D. Ferrer, D. L. Ormsby, G. M. Rosair and A. J. Welch, Dalton Trans., 2005, 1716 DOI: 10.1039/B500944H

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements