SYNTHESIS AND STRUCTURE OF A DINUCLEAR COBALT CARBONYL DERIVATIVE CONTAINING METHYLDITHIOFORMATE AS A 5-ELECTRON DONOR LIGAND

Dicobalt octacarbonyl reacts with an excess of (MeSCS2)(2) to form sev eral sulfur-containing cobalt carbonyl derivatives; on addition of PPh 3, the complex (CO)(2)(PPh3)(2)(1,3-eta-S2CSMe)(mu-1,2-eta-SCSMe) (1) could be isolated from the reaction mixture. The structure of complex 1 was determined by X-ray crystallography; it contains a methyl dithio formate ligand in which the ligand donates five electrons to the clust er and the CS group is bound perpendicular to the Co-2 core.