A re-examination of the reaction of dichloro-tris-(triphenylphosphino)ruthenium(II) with benzonitrile: Crystal structures of triphenylphosphine chloro ruthenium complexes

Abstract

The reaction of RuCl2(PPh3)3 with benzonitrile has been investigated in toluene. When excess benzonitrile is employed cis-RuCl2(PPh3)2(NCPh)2 is obtained and has been characterized by X-ray diffraction. This contrasts to acetonitrile which yields trans-RuCl2(PPh3)2(NCMe)2. With excess RuCl2(PPh3)3 a triply chloro bridged diruthenium compound (PPh3)2(Cl)Ru(μ-Cl)3Ru(NCPh)(PPh3)2 is obtained. A dark red crystalline side product, formed during the preparation of RuCl2(PPh3)3, is identified as [Ph3PMe][RuCl4(PPh3)2] by low temperature crystal structure determination with better precision than previously reported. In each case, the Ru atom presents octahedral coordination geometry.