Tri- and Hexaruthenium Carbonyl Clusters

Submitted by ELENA CARIATI, CLAUDIA DRAGONETTI, ELENA LUCENTI,t and DOMINIQUE ROBERTO  

Dipartimento di Chimica Inorganica, Metallorganica e Analitica dell Universita di Milano, Unita di Ricerca dell INSTM di Milano and Centro CIMAINA, 20133 Milano, Italy, hstituto di Scienze e Tecnologie Molecolari del CNR (ISTM), 20133, Milano, Italy. 

RuCl3 -nH20 (41.20-42.68 wt% Ru) is available commercially from Engelhard. The exact content of water may be determined before each reaction by thermo-gravimetric analysis. 

Ru3(CO)i2 is an orange air-stable crystalline solid, soluble in a wide variety of organic solvents, insoluble in water, and volatile. Its IR spectrum, in hexane, shows vco bands at 2061 (vs), 2031 (s), and 2011 (m) cm . No band assignable to a bridging carbonyl ligand is observed.  

Some brown unidentified complex (characterized by Uco at 1998 (vs) and 1975 (sh) cm in Nujol muU) may precipitate along with Ru3(CO)i2 in the reaction flask but, in contrast to the latter cluster, it is insoluble in CH2CI2 and therefore readily eliminated. 

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