Synthesis of Coordinatively Unsaturated Mesityliron Thiolate Complexes and Their Reactions with Elemental Sulfur

Abstract

The reactions of Fe(2)Mes(4) (1; Mes = mesityl) with bulky thiols, namely, HSDmp (Dmp = 2,6-dimesitylphenyl), HSDxp (Dxp = 2,6-dixylylphenyl), and HSBtip [Btip = 2,6-(2,4,6-(i)Pr(3)C(6)H(2))(2)C(6)H(3)], provided a series of iron(II) mesityl complexes bearing bulky thiolate ligands. These iron complexes are the thiolate-bridged dinuclear complexes Fe(2)Mes(2)(mu-SAr)(mu-Mes) (2a, Ar = Dmp; 2b, Ar = Dxp), the 1,2-dimethoxyethane (DME) adducts (DME)Fe(SAr)(Mes) (3a, Ar = Dmp; 3b, Ar = Dxp), the mixed-valence Fe(I)-Fe(II) dinuclear complexes (Mes)Fe(mu-SAr)(mu-S Ar) Fe (4a, Ar = Dmp; 4b, Ar = Dxp), and a low-coordinate mononuclear complex (B tipS) Fe(Mes) (5). An [Fe(8)S(7)] cluster [Fe(4)S(3)(SDmp)](2)(mu-SDmp)(2)(mu-SMes)(mu(6)-S) (6), the core structure of which is topologically relevant to that of the FeMo-cofactor of nitrogenase, was obtained from the reaction of 3a or 4a with S(8). The mu-SMes ligand in 6 is formed via insertion of a sulfur atom into the Fe-C(Mes) bond. The formation of cluster 6 from 3a or 4a demonstrates that organoiron complexes are applicable as precursors for iron-sulfur clusters.