Electronic absorption and emission spectra are reported for salts of two oxomolybdenum(IV) cations, [MoOCl(CN-
t-Bu)
4]
+ and [MoOCl(Ph
2PCH
2CH
2PPh
2)
2]
+, and for the new Mo(IV) complex [
trans-Mo(OCH
3)
2(CN-
t-Bu)
4]
2+. All three ions show absorption bands (
max,abs 550-570 nm;
![](/images/gifchars/epsilon.gif)
45-120 M
-1 cm
-1) attributable to the
1A
1[(d
xy)
2]
1E[(d
xy)
1(d
xz,yz)
1] (
C4v) transition, and the last two show weak shoulders in the 700-750 nm rangedue to the analogous spin-forbidden (
1A
1
3E) transition. Phosphorescence (
max,em 850-960 nm) occurs in thesolid state for all three compounds at both room temperature and 77 K, and for [MoOCl(CN-
t-Bu)
4]
+ in CH
2Cl
2at room temperature. These are the first phosphorescences recorded for molybdenum(IV) complexes. [MoOCl(CN-
t-Bu)
4](BPh
4) precipitates quickly if NaBPh
4 is added to the Mo(IV) solution prepared from MoCl
5 and
tert-butyl isocyanide in CH
3OH. However, if NaPF
6 is used instead, [
trans-Mo(OCH
3)
2(CN-
t-Bu)
4](PF
6)
2 (formedby reaction of [MoOCl(CN-
t-Bu)
4]
+ with methanol) crystallizes over a period of ca. 24 h. The crystal structureof [
trans-Mo(OCH
3)
2(CN-
t-Bu)
4](PF
6)
2 has been determined: C
22H
42F
12MoN
4O
2P
2, monoclinic; space group
P2
1/
c;
a = 9.1538(8) Å,
b = 15.709(2) Å,
c = 13.456(2) Å;
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
= 103.31(1)
![](/images/entities/deg.gif)
;
Z = 2;
R(
F) = 0.063,
Rw(
F) = 0.056for
2719 reflections with
I >
![](/images/gifchars/sigma.gif)
(
I).