Tetranuclear carbonyl hydrides

The reaction of carbon monoxide with mixed metal tetranuclear carbonyl hydrides which is first order in each reactant leads to fragmentation, in which H2, tri- and mononuclear products are formed somewhat selectively. Tor... 

Many of the methods used for the preparation of mononuclear hydrides may be applied to the polynuclear systems. Base attack on metal carbonyls, which furnished one of the first methods for the production of carbonyl hydride species, is applicable to a wide range of carbonyls. Borohydride reduction leads to a variety of products, depending upon the reaction conditions, Os3(CO)12 reacting with NaBH in di-oxane under reflux to give, after 4 hours, a mixture of the anions [H30s4(C0)12] and [H2Os4(CO)i2]2 (79). The related reaction in tetra-hydrofuran for 1 hour yields the anion [HOs3(CO)n]- as the main product with minor amounts of the two tetranuclear anions. 

Submitted by MICHAEL 1. BRUCE and MICHAEL L. WILLIAMS Checked by GUY LAVIGNE and TH RESE ARLIGUIEt This tetranuclear ruthenium carbonyl hydride was described on several occasions,5 but early preparations were usually contaminated with Ru3(CO)12, giving rise to suggestions of the existence of two isomeric forms. The situation was clarified by the work of Kaesz and coworkers,6 who discovered the direct route from Ru3(CO)12 and hydrogen, which is described below. The compound is often obtained from reactions between Ru3(CO)12 and substrates containing hydrogen (hydrocarbons, ethers, alcohols, water, etc.) and by acidification of anionic ruthenium cluster carbonyls.7... 

Unlike cobalt and rhodium, the chemistry of polynuclear iridium carbonyl derivatives has not been studied in detail (15a). Reduction of Ir4(CO)i2 under carbon monoxide with K2C03 in methanol gives the yellow tetranuclear hydride derivative [Ir4(CO)nH], whereas under nitrogen the brown dianion [Ir8(CO)2o]2- has been isolated as a tetraalkylam-monium salt (97). It has been suggested that the structure of the dianion could result from the linking of two iridium tetrahedra, although its formulation so far is based only on elemental analyses. Clearly such an interesting compound deserves further chemical and structural characterization. 

Known carbonyl hydrides of mthenium include the unstable HRu(CO)4, as well as the trinuclear H2Ru3(CO)n, tetranuclear H2Ru4(CO)i3 and H4Ru4(CO)i2, and complexes of even higher nuclearity, as well as substitution and deprotonation derivatives. A special feature of mthenium carbonyl chemistry is the existence of series of carbonyl... 

Although in a few tetranuclear complexes fragmentation is the primary result of photolysis , and others, e.g., (h -CjHp Fe fCO), are inert with respect to both photoinduced M—M cleavage and carbonyl loss , substitution without fragmentation is the dominant photoreaction of tetranuclear metal carbonyls, especially of those containing second and third-row metals. Both Ir (CO),2 and H Os (CO),2 " lead to tetranuclear olefin-substituted products when irradiated with alkenes, both with some rearrangement of the Ir moiety in the former case, and a hydride abstraction in the latter. Irradiation of H Ru/CO),j in the presence of P(OMe)j or PPhj leads to stepwise formation of the substituted clusters H Ru/CO), (n = 1-4) with low quantum efficiency . Carbonyl substitution also dominates the photochemistry of HjM CCO) (M = Ru, FeRuj, FeOsj) . 

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