Novel dimetal bridging carbene complexes derived from a terminal carbonyl dimetal compound. Syntheses, structures and reactivities of 7H-indene-coordinated diiron bridging carbene complexes

Abstract

Pentacarbonyl-7H-indenediiron, [Fe2(CO)5(eta3,eta5-C9H8)] (1), reacts with aryllithium, ArLi (Ar = C6H5, p-C6H5C6H4), followed by alkylation with Et3OBF4 to give novel 7H-indene-coordinated diiron bridging alkoxycarbene complexes [Fe2{mu-C(OC2H5)Ar}(CO)4(eta4,eta4-C9H8)] (2, Ar = C6H5; 3, Ar = p-C6H5C6H4). Complexes 2 and 3 react with HBF4.Et2O at low temperature to yield cationic bridging carbyne complexes [Fe2(mu-CAr)(CO)4(eta4,eta4-C9H8)]BF4 (4, Ar = C6H5; 5, Ar = p-C6H5C6H4). Cationic 4 and 5 react with NaBH4 in THF at low temperature to afford diiron bridging arylcarbene complexes [Fe2{mu-C(H)Ar}(CO)4(eta4,eta4-C9H8)] (6, Ar = C6H5; 7, Ar = p-C6H5C6H4). The similar reactions of 4 and 5 with NaSC6H4CH3-p produce the bridging arylthiocarbene complexes [Fe2{mu-C(Ar)SC6H4CH3-p}(CO)4(eta4,eta4-C9H8)] (8, Ar = C6H5; 9, Ar = p-C6H5C6H4). Cationic 4 and 5 can also react with anionic carbonylmetal compounds Na[M(CO)5(CN)] (M = Cr, Mo, W) to give the diiron bridging aryl(pentacarbonylcyanometal)carbene complexes [Fe2{mu-C(Ar)NCM(CO)5}(CO)4(eta4,eta4-C9H8)] (10, Ar = C6H5, M = Cr; 11, Ar = p-C6H5C6H4, M = Cr; 12, Ar = C6H5, M = Mo; 13, Ar = p-C6H5C6H4, M = Mo; 14, Ar = C6H5, M = W; 15, Ar = p-C6H5C6H4, M = W). Interestingly, in CH2Cl2 solution at room temperature complexes 10-15 were transformed into the isomerized 7H-indene-coordinated monoiron complexes [Fe(CO)2(eta5-C9H8)C(Ar)NCM(CO)5] (16, Ar = C6H5, M = Cr; 17, Ar = p-C6H5C6H4, M = Cr; 18, Ar = C6H5, M = Mo; 19, Ar = p-C6H5C6H4, M = Mo; 20, Ar = C6H5, M = W; 21, Ar = p-C6H5C6H4, M = W), while complex 3 was converted into a novel ring addition product [Fe2{C(OC2H5)C6H4C6H5-p-(eta2,eta5-C9H8)}(CO)5] (22) under the same conditions. The structures of complexes 2, 6, 8, 14, 18 and 22 have been established by X-ray diffraction studies.