A series of heterobimetallic dinitrogen complexes containing group 6 and group 4 or 5transition metals were synthesized by the reaction of the tungsten or molybdenum dinitrogencomplexes
cis-[W(N
2)
2(PMe
2Ph)
4] (
1) and
trans-[M(N
2)
2(dppe)
2] (
2) (M = W, Mo) with group4 or group 5 compounds such as [CpTiCl
3], [Cp
2M'Cl
2] (M' = Ti, Zr, Hf), or [Cp'M'Cl
4] (Cp'= Cp, Cp*; M' = Nb, Ta). Crystallographic studies of the complexes thus obtained including[WCl(PMe
2Ph)
4(
-N
2)TiCpCl
2] and [WCl(PMe
2Ph)
4(
-N
2)NbCpCl
3] revealed that the M-N-N-M' core is essentially linear, and the N-N bond is regarded to have the formal bondorder of 2. Several
-N
2 complexes with methyl ligands at the group 4 or 5 metal centerwere also obtained through the reaction of dinitrogen complexes
1 and
2a (M = W) with themethyl complexes [Cp
2ZrMeCl], [TaMe
3Cl
2], and [NbMe
2Cl
3]. The reaction of the complex[WCl(dppe)
2(
-N
2)TiCpCl
2] with Li
2S
5 afforded the
2-pentasulfido complex [WCl(dppe)
2(
-N
2)TiCpS
5], where the
2-S
5 ligand forms a six-membered chelate ring with the chairconformation. Protonation of the
-N
2 complexes having PMe
2Ph ligands gave NH
3 inmoderate yield, concurrent with the formation of a small amount of NH
2NH
2.