Photolysis of diruthenium hexacarbonyl tetrahedrane compounds in Nujol glass matrices

Abstract

The photochemistry of five diruthenium hexacarbonyl tetrahedrane compounds, Ru 2(CO) 6(μ-S 2C 6H 4) ( 1), Ru 2(CO) 6(μ-S 2C 2H 4) ( 2), Ru 2(CO) 6(μ-S 2C 3H 6) ( 3), Ru 2(CO) 6(μ-SCH 2CH 3) 2 ( 4), and Ru 2(CO) 6(μ-dmpz) 2, ( 5), where dmpz=3,5-dimethylpyrazolate, have been examined in frozen Nujol glasses at ca. 90 K. Compounds 1– 4 are found to lose CO upon UV photolysis to form two isomeric photoproducts, while 5 is found to form one product almost exclusively. The various photoproducts are assigned to axial and equatorial CO-loss species on the basis of the spectra of analogous triphenylphosphine pentacarbonyl derivatives.