FERROCENYL SUBSTITUTED CARBORANES - SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION

The reaction between ethynyl ferrocene and decaborane affords the new ferrocenyl substituted carborane 1-{Fc}-1,2-closo-C2B10H11 1 [Fc = (et a(5)-C5H4)Fe(eta(5)-C5H5)]. Deboronation of 1 gives K[7-{Fc}-7,8-nido- C2B9H11] 2, and subsequent metallation, using the {Ru(p-cym)} fragment , affords the novel ferrocenyl substituted ruthenacarborane 1-{Fc}-3-( p-cym)-3,1,2-closo-RuC2B9H10 3 (p-cym = 1-Me-C4H4-4-Pr-i). Reaction be tween bis(methylethynyl)ferrocene and decaborane affords the bis carbo rane substituted ferrocene l,l'-{Fc'}-{2-Me-1,2-closo-C2B10H10}(2), 4 [Fc' = (eta(5)-C5H4)Fe(eta(5)-C5H4)]. Deboronation of 4 results in the formation [HNMe3](2)[7,7'-{Fc'}-{7-Me-7,8-nido-C2B9H10}(2)], 5, isola ted as a syn and anti diastereoisomeric pair. Metallation of 5 affords the trimetallic ruthenacarborane 1,1-{Fc'}-{2-Me-3-(p-cym)-3,1,2-clos o-RuC2B9H9}(2) 3, as a mixture of syn and anti diastereoisomers. All t he new complexes have been fully characterised by multinuclear NMR and micro-analysis, and for compounds 1, 3, 4 and anti-6 by a single crys tal X-ray study. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.