The 10-vertex phosphadicarbaboranes, 6-R-
arachno-6,8,9-PC
2B
7H
11 (
1) (R = Ph
1a or Me
1b)and 6-R-
arachno-6,5,7-PC
2B
7H
11 (
2) (R = Ph
2a or Me
2b) have been synthesized using in situdehydrohalogenation reactions of RPCl
2 (R = Ph or Me) with the
arachno-4,5-C
2B
7H
13 and
arachno-4,6-C
2B
7H
13 carboranes, respectively. X-ray crystallographic determinations in conjunction with DFT/GIAO/NMR calculations and NMR spectroscopic studies have established that both
1 and
2 have open cagestructures based on an icosahedron missing two vertexes. The two isomeric compounds differ in the positionsof the carbons and bridging hydrogens on the open face. Studies of the reactions of
2a with BH
3·THF, S
8,and hydrogen peroxide demonstrated that
2a shows strong donor properties yielding the compounds
endo-6-H
3B-
exo-6-Ph-
arachno-6,5,7-PC
2B
7H
11 (
3),
endo-6-S-
exo-6-Ph-
arachno-6,5,7-PC
2B
7H
11 (
4), and
endo-6-O-
exo-6-Ph-
arachno-6,5,7-PC
2B
7H
11 (
5) in which the BH
3, S, and O substitutents are bonded to an electronlone pair localized at the phosphorus
endo-position. The reaction of
2a with an excess of S
8 results in theloss of a framework boron to produce the unique open-cage compound
7,8-{HS(Ph)P}-
hypho-7,8-C
2B
6H
11(
6).
2a also formed the donor complexes
cis-(
1-[6-Ph-
arachno-6,5,7-PC
2B
7H
11])
2PtBr
2 (
7) and
trans-(
1-[6-Ph-
arachno-6,5,7-PC
2B
7H
11])
2PdBr
2 (
8) in which the metal fragment is bonded in an
1-fashion at thephosphorus
endo-position. In these complexes,
2a is functioning as a two-electron sigma donor to themetals and can thus be considered as an analogue of the PR
3 ligands in the classical
cis-(PPh
3)
2PtBr
2 and
trans-(PPh
3)
2PdBr
2 coordination complexes. Although
1a did not show the donor properties exhibited by
2a, its dianion 6-Ph-6,8,9-PC
2B
7H
92- (
1a2-) readily formed
4-coordinated complexes with late transitionmetals including 8-Ph-7-(Ph
3P)
2-
nido-7,8,10,11-PtPC
2B
7H
9 (
9), 7-Ph-11-(
5-C
5H
5)-
nido-11,7,9,10-CoPC
2B
7H
9(
10), and
commo-Ni-(7-Ni-8'-Ph-
nido-8',10',11'-PC
2B
7H
9)(7-Ni-8-Ph-
nido-8,10,11-PC
2B
7H
9) (
11).