[Co_3(1,2-S2C6H4)_3(PPh_3)_3]+, A basic triangle unit of some polynuclear molecules

[Co3(1,2-S2C6H4)3(PPh3)3][CoBr3(DMF)].sol (1, sol=CHCl3,O(C2H5)2,H2O) was obtained from the reaction of CoBr(PPh3)3 with Na2(S2C6H4) in chloroform. The Co3 core in the cation of 1 exhibits a metal-metal bonded isosceles triangle, in which the two longer Co-Co bonds are both bridged by S2C6H4 ligands on two sides of the triangle plane respectively, while the bottom short Co-Co bond is bridged by the third bidentate S2C6H4 ligand. A series of polynu-clear cobalt cluster compounds with phosphine, thiolate and/or sulphur ligands were prepared by low oxidation state Co+ with thiolates in organic solvents. These tri-, tetra-, hexa-, heptanuclear cluster compounds 1-8 with various types of crystal structures can be viewed as the condensed polynuclear cobalt complexes that the cobalt atom frameworks with sulphur bridged were built through the small triangular units of [Co3S3nL3] (n=1,2) with or without [CoL] (L=PR3, Br, Cl, 5-C5H5) fragments.