Selective oxidation of Mo(CO)
3 complexes oftritertiary 1,5,9-triphosphacyclododecane macrocycles (R
3L)byhalogens (X
2 = Cl
2, Br
2,I
2) to Mo(II) triphospha macrocycle complexes of thetype (R
3L)Mo(CO)
2X
2 [R=(CH
3)
2CH (
2),(CH
3)
3SiCH
2 (
3),C
2H
5 (
4),(CH
3)
2CHCH
2 (
5)]allows the high yield and stereoselective liberationof the corresponding tritertiary macrocycles[
syn,syn-R
3L, R =(CH
3)
2CH (
6),(CH
3)
3SiCH
2 (
7),C
2H
5 (
8),(CH
3)
2CHCH
2 (
9)] in good yield (75-80%) bydigestion in strong base. This method fails for the parenttrisecondarymacrocycle (H
3L) and also for the intermediate Mo(II)salts,[(R
3L)Mo(CO)
3X]A
-[X = halide, A
- = halide,BPh
4 (
1)]. Addition of halogen to(H
3L)Cr(CO)
3 gives rise to the newblue-violet complexes(H
3L)Cr(CO)
2X
2[X = Cl
2 (
11), Br
2(
12)]. Paramagnetic susceptibilities indicate that
11 and
12 are low-spin d
4 sixcoordinatedicarbonyl halo-halide complexes of the type[(H
3L)Cr(CO)
2X]X. In thiscase, the trisecondary 1,5,9-triphosphacyclododecane (H
3L,
13) may beliberated stereoselectively and in reasonable yield (60-70%)from
11 or
12. The macrocycles may alternativelybe liberated from the Mo(II)
dihalo complexes by action ofCN
-.The free trisecondary macrocycle can be alkylatednonstereoselectively to give the tritertiary macrocycles[
syn,anti-R
3L; R = CH
3 (
24),C
2H
5 (
8b),(CH
3)
3C (
25)]. The inversionof phosphorus in the
syn,syn isomer
8 toits
syn,anti analogue,
8b, was shown to be slowat 156
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C. Exhaustive oxidation of the Mo(0) macrocyclecomplexeswith H
2O
2 or O
3 results inliberation of the corresponding macrocycle trioxides in good yield.All free macrocycles(and oxides) have been characterized by spectroscopic methods and asthe hydrochlorides for selected ligands.