Use of Single-Metal Fragments for Cluster Building: Synthesis, Structure, and Bonding of Heterometallaboranes

Abstract

The synergic property of the CO ligand, in general, can stabilize metal complexes at lower oxidation states. Utilizing this feature of the CO ligand, we have recently isolated and structurally characterized a highly fluxional molybdenum complex [{Cp*Mo(CO)2}2{μ-η2:η2-B2H4}] (2; Cp* = η5-C5Me5) comprising the diborane(4) ligand. Compound 2 represents a rare class of bimetallic diborane(4) complex corresponding to a singly bridged Cs structure. In an attempt to isolate the tungsten analogue of 2, [{Cp*W(CO)2}2{μ-η2:η2-B2H4}], we have isolated a rare vertex-fused cluster, [(Cp*W)3WB9H18] (5). Having a structural likeness with the dimolybdenum alkyne complex [{CpMo(CO)2}2C2H2], we have further explored the chemistry of 2 with CO gas that yielded a homoleptic trimolybdenum complex, [(Cp*Mo)3(μ-H)2(μ3-H)(μ-CO)2B4H4] (4). In an attempt to replace the 16-electron {Cp*MoH(CO)2} moiety in 4 with isolobal fragment {W(CO)5}, we treated the intermediate, obtained from the reaction of Cp*MoCl4 and LiBH4, with the monometal carbonyl fragment {W(CO)5·THF}. The reaction indeed yielded two bimetallic clusters, [(Cp*Mo)2B4H8W(CO)4] (7) and [(Cp*Mo)2B4H6W(CO)5] (8), that seem to have been generated by the replacement of one {BH} or {BH3} vertex from [(Cp*Mo)2B5H9], respectively. All of the compounds have been characterized by various spectroscopic analyses and single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies. Electron-counting rules and molecular orbital analyses provided further insight into the electronic structure of all of these molecules.