Reactivity of the 16e (p-cymene)Ru half-sandwich complex containing a chelating 1,2-dicarba-closo-dodecaborane-1,2-dithiolate ligand towards diynes

The reactions of the 16e half-sandwich complex (p-cymene)Ru(S(2)C(2)B(10)H(10)) (Ru16e) with 1,4-diethynylbenzene (L1), 3',6-diethynyl-1,1'-binaphthyl-2,7'-diyl diacetate (L2), 2-bromo-5-ethynylthiophene (L3) and 2,5-diethynylthiophene (L4) lead to 18e mononuclear complexes (p-cymene)Ru(S(2)C(2)B(10)H(9))(H(2)CCPhC CH) (1), (p-cymene) Ru(S(2)C(2)B(10)H(9))[H(2)CC(C(24)H(16)O(4))C CH] (2), (p-cymene) Ru(S(2)C(2)B(10)H(9)) [H(2)CC(C(4)H(2)S)Br] (3) and (p-cymene) Ru(S(2)C(2)B(10)H(9)) [H(2)CC(C(4)H(2)S) C CH] (4), respectively. In all of them, metal-induced B-H activation has occurred, which leads to a stable Ru-B bond, and the structures take a cisoid arrangement. Only in the case of L4, the binuclear complexes [(p-cymene) Ru(S(2)C(2)B(10)H(9))](2)[H(2)CC(C(4)H(2)S)CCH(2)] (5a and 5b) are observed, which are conformational isomers generated by the differing orientations of the p-cymene unit. 4 can be readily converted to the complex (p-cymene)Ru(S(2)C(2)B(10)H(9))[H(2)CC(C(4)H(2)S)COCH(3)] (6) in the presence of silica and H(2)O. All of these products 1-6 were characterized by NMR, IR, elemental analysis and mass spectrometry. The structures of 1, 3, and 5a were also determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis.