Treatment of RuCl
2(PPh
3)
3 with HC
CCH(OH)C
CH/PPh
3 at room temperature produces the air-stable ruthenabenzene [Ru(CHC(PPh
3)CHC(PPh
3)CH)Cl
2(PPh
3)
2]Cl (
2) in good yield. The ruthenabenzene
2 can even be obtained from the one-pot reaction of RuCl
3, PPh
3, and HC
CCH(OH)C
CH in themixed solvent of ionic liquid and CH
2Cl
2 in higher yield. The ruthenabenzene
2 reacts with PMe
3, PBu
3,
tert-butyl isocyanide, 2,2'-dipyridyl (bipy), and 2,2'-dipyridyl/PMe
3 to give new stable ruthenabenzenes[Ru(CHC(PPh
3)CHC(PPh
3)CH)Cl
2(PMe
3)
2]Cl (
4), [Ru(CHC(PPh
3)CHC(PPh
3)CH)Cl
2(PBu
3)
2]Cl (
5), [Ru(CHC(PPh
3)CHC(PPh
3)CH)Cl(
tBuNC)(PPh
3)
2]Cl
2 (
6), [Ru(CHC(PPh
3)CHC(PPh
3)CH)Cl(bipy)(PPh
3)]Cl
2(
7), and [Ru(CHC(PPh
3)CHC(PPh
3)CH)(bipy)(PMe
3)
2]Cl
3 (
8), respectively. Reaction of ruthenabenzene
2 with AgBF
4 gives bisruthenabenzene [Ru(CHC(PPh
3)CHC(PPh
3)CH)(PPh
3)]
2(
-Cl)
3(BF
4)
3 (
9). Thethermal decomposition reactions of ruthenabenzene
2 and
7 produce a stable Cp
- ion derivative, [CHC(PPh
3)CHC(PPh
3)CH]Cl (
10).
2,
4,
7,
8,
9, and
10 have been structurally characterized.
9 is the firstnon-metal-coordinated bismetallabenzene. An electrochemical study shows that the metal centers in thebisruthenabenzene
9 slightly interact with each other through the chloro bridges.