In quest of nickel complexes with sulfur ligation that model theacetyl-CoA synthase function of COdehydrogenase (CODH),[Ni('S
4C
3Me
2')](
1,'S
4C
3Me
2'
2-=1,3-bis(2-mercaptophenylthio)-2,2-dimethyl-propane(2-)) was synthesized by template alkylation ofNa
2[Ni('S
2')
2]('S
2'
2- = benzene-1,2-dithiolate(2-))withCMe
2(CH
2Br)
2. Acidichydrolysis of
1 yielded the thiol"S
4C
3Me
2"-H
2(
2). Reduction of
1 with Na/Hg resultedincleavage of the'S
4C
3Me
2'
2-lig
and and formation of the thermally stable trinuclear nickel(II)alkyl thiolato complex[Ni('
![](/images/entities/mgr.gif)
-S
2C
3Me
2')]
3(
3,'S
2C
3Me
2'
2-= 1-(2-mercaptophenylthio)-2,2-dimethylpropyl(2-)).Treatment of
3 with L= Py, THF, or PMe
3 afforded the mononuclear compounds[Ni('S
2C
3Me
2')(L)](
4, L = Py;
5, L = PMe
3).Thestoichiometric reaction of[Ni('S
2C
3Me
2')(L)] with CO ledto the cyclic thioester'S
2C
3Me
2CO'(
6,'S
2C
3Me
2CO'= 2,3-benzo-6,6-dimethyl-8-oxo-1,4-dithia-cyclooctane)
andNi(CO)
4. In the analogous reaction of
5 with CO theintermediate nickel(II) acyl thiolato complex[Ni('S
2C
3Me
2CO')(PMe
3)](
7,'S
2C
3Me
2CO'(2-) =1-(2-mercaptophenylthio)-2,2-dimethyl-3-oxobutyl(2-)) could be intercepted
and fullycharacterized. The reaction of Ni(CO)
4 withthethiol
2 yielded the starting Ni(II) complex
1 and allowed to close the reaction cycle that comprises theCODHsequence: [Ni]
![](/images/entities/rarr.gif)
[Ni-alkyl]
![](/images/entities/rarr.gif)
[Ni-acyl]
![](/images/entities/rarr.gif)
[Ni] +thioester. The net reaction can be formulated as'S
4C
3Me
2'-H
2(
2) + CO
![](/images/entities/rarr.gif)
'S
2C
3Me
2CO'(
6) + 'S
2'-H
2 and represents thefirst example of nickel mediated thioester formation ina complete reaction cycle. X-ray structure determinations ofcomplexes
1,
3,
4,
and 7revealed approximately squareplanar coordination geometry for all Ni centers.