Unsaturated Triosmium Carbonyl Cluster Complexes with Bridging Aryl Ligands: Structures, Bonding, and Transformations

Abstract

Reactions of Os3(CO)10(NCMe)2, 1, with the series of aryl-gold complexes ArylAu(PPh3) [Aryl = phenyl = Ph, 2-naphthyl = 2-Np (2-C10H7) and 1-pyryl (1-C16H10)] have provided the series of electronically unsaturated triosmium complexes Os3(CO)10(μ-η1-Ar)(μ-AuPPh3) [2, Ar = phenyl = Ph; 3, Ar = 2-naphthyl = 2-Np (2-C10H7); and Ar = 4 and 5, 2-pyryl and 4-pyryl], containing bridging η1-Ar ligands and a bridging Au(PPh3) group that bridges the same unsaturated Os–Os bond in the 46-electron cluster complex. All new compounds were characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses. A DFT computational analysis of 2 has revealed that bonding of the bridging phenyl ligand to the metal atoms consists of a combination of delocalized σ-bonding between the ipso-carbon atom and the two proximate metal atoms and π-donation from the π-orbitals of the ring to those same metal atoms. There is no significant metal to ring π-back-bonding. Compound 3 exists as two isomers, 3a and 3b. Compound 3a contains a μ-η1-2-Np l...