Irreversible rearrangement of half-sandwich ruthenium hydrido-alkynyl complexes to their vinylidene isomers

Abstract

The complex [(C5Me5)RuCl(dippe)](dippe = l,2-bis(diisopropylphosphino)ethane) reacts with alk-1-ynes in MeOH in the presence of NaBPh4 yielding the metastable hydrido-alkynyl derivatives [(C5Me5)Ru(H)(CCR)(dippe)][BPh4](R = CO2Me, SiMe3 or Ph), intermediates in the formation of the corresponding vinylidene complexes, to which these compounds rearrange both in solution and in the solid state.