Cationic (arene)ruthenium-based hexanuclear complexes with trigonal-prismatic structures have beensynthesi
zed in good yield by self-assembly of only two components: the dinuclear (arene)rutheniumcomplexes [Ru(
ages/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
6-arene)(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">-Cl)Cl]
2 (arene =
p-Pr
iC
6H
4Me, C
6Me
6) react in water with 2,4,6-tris(pyridinyl)-1,3,5-tria
zine (tpt) derivatives in the presence of AgO
3SCF
3 to form hexanuclear cations of the generalformula [Ru
6(
ages/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
6-arene)
6(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">
3-tpt-
ages/gifchars/kappa.gif" BORDER=0 >
N)
2(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">-Cl)
6]
6+. In the presence of 2,4,6-tris(pyridin-4-yl)-1,3,5-tria
zine(4-tpt) the prismatic cations [Ru
6(
ages/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
6-
p-Pr
iC
6H
4Me)
6(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">
3-4-tpt-
ages/gifchars/kappa.gif" BORDER=0 >
N)
2(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">-Cl)
6]
6+ (
3) and [Ru
6(
ages/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
6-C
6Me
6)
6(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">
3-4-tpt-
ages/gifchars/kappa.gif" BORDER=0 >
N)
2(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">-Cl)
6]
6+ (
4) have been isolated as the triflate salts, whereas with 2,4,6-tris(pyridin-3-yl)-1,3,5-tria
zine (3-tpt) [Ru
6(
ages/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
6-
p-Pr
iC
6H
4Me)
6(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">
3-3-tpt-
ages/gifchars/kappa.gif" BORDER=0 >
N)
2(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">-Cl)
6]
6+ (
7) and [Ru
6(
ages/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
6-C
6Me
6)
6(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">
3-3-tpt-
ages/gifchars/kappa.gif" BORDER=0 >
N)
2(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">-Cl)
6]
6+ (
8) have been obtained and isolated as the triflate salts. In all cases, the neutral intermediatesinitially formed prior to the addition of silver triflate have been isolated and characteri
zed as well: [Ru
3(
ages/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
6-
p-Pr
iC
6H
4Me)
3(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">
3-4-tpt-
ages/gifchars/kappa.gif" BORDER=0 >
N)Cl
6] (
1), [Ru
3(
ages/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
6-C
6Me
6)
3(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">
3-4-tpt-
ages/gifchars/kappa.gif" BORDER=0 >
N)Cl
6] (
2), [Ru
3(
ages/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
6-
p-Pr
iC
6H
4Me)
3(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">
3-3-tpt-
ages/gifchars/kappa.gif" BORDER=0 >
N)Cl
6] (
5), and [Ru
3(
ages/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
6-C
6Me
6)
3(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">
3-3-tpt-
ages/gifchars/kappa.gif" BORDER=0 >
N)Cl
6] (
6), respectively. In the case of a trigonal-prismatic hexacation containing
p-cymene and 3-tpt ligands, the NMR spectra reveal a mixture of thetwo isomers
7a and
7b, the formation of which can be rationali
zed by molecular modeling. The single-crystal structure analyses of [Ru
6(
ages/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
6-
p-Pr
iC
6H
4Me)
6(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">
3-4-tpt-
ages/gifchars/kappa.gif" BORDER=0 >
N)
2(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">-Cl)
6][O
3SCF
3]
6 ([
3][O
3SCF
3]
6), [Ru
6(
ages/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
6-C
6Me
6)
6(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">
3-4-tpt-
ages/gifchars/kappa.gif" BORDER=0 >
N)
2(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">-Cl)
6][O
3SCF
3]
6 ([
4][O
3SCF
3]
6), and [Ru
6(
ages/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
6-C
6Me
6)
6(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">
3-3-tpt-
ages/gifchars/kappa.gif" BORDER=0 >
N)
2(
ages/entities/mgr.gif">-Cl)
6][O
3SCF
3]
6 ([
8][O
3SCF
3]
6) reveal strong
ages/gifchars/pi.gif" BORDER=0 > stacking interactions between the two tpt subunits of the trigonalprisms.