The reactions of [Ru
3(CO)
12] with half equi
valent of 2-amino-6-methylpyridine (H
2ampy) or 2-aminopyridine (H
2apy)in refluxing xylene gi
ve the hexanuclear products [Ru
6(
3-H)
2(
5-
2-L)(
-CO)
2(CO)
14] (L = ampy,
1; apy,
2). Thesereactions represent the first high-yield syntheses of hexanuclear complexes with a basal edge-bridged squarepyramidal metallic skeleton. Fi
ve metal atoms of these complexes are bridged by the N-donor ligand in such a waythat the edge-bridging metal atom is attached to the pyridine nitrogen, while the basal atoms of the square pyramidare capped by an imido fragment that arises from the acti
vation of both N-H bonds of the NH
2 group. The reacti
vesites of these complexes in CO substitution reactions ha
ve been determined by studying the reacti
vity of
1 withtriphenylphosphine. Two kinetically controlled monosubstitutions take place on the edge-bridging metal atom inpositions
cis to the pyridine nitrogen, leading to a mixture of two isomers of formula [Ru
6(
3-H)
2(
5-
2-ampy)(
-CO)
2(CO)
13(PPh
3)] (
3 and
4). On heating at 80
C, these monosubstituted isomers are transformed,
via a dissociati
vepathway, into the product of thermodynamic control (
5), which has the PPh
3 ligand on the apical Ru atom. The di-and trisubstituted deri
vati
ves [Ru
6(
3-H)
2(
5-
2-ampy)(
-CO)
2(CO)
12(PPh
3)
2] (
6) and [Ru
6(
3-H)
2(
5-
2-ampy)(
-CO)
2(CO)
11(PPh
3)
3] (
7) are stepwise formed from
3-
5 and PPh
3. Compound
6 has the PPh
3 ligands on the edge-bridging and apical Ru atoms, and compound
7 has an additional PPh
3 ligand on an unbridged basal Ru atom.The compound [Ru
6(
3-H)
2(
5-
2-ampy)(
-CO)
2(CO)
12(
-dppm)] (
8), in which a basal and the apical Ru atoms arespanned by the dppm ligand, has been isolated from the reaction of
1 with bis(diphenylphosphino)methane.