Ligand substitution in cubic clusters: surprising isolation of the cocrystallization products of Cu8(mu8-Se)[S2P(OEt)2]6 and Cu6[S2P(OEt)2]6

The cluster (Cu8(mu8-Se)S2P(OEt)2]6)0.54(Cu6S2P(OEt)2]6)0.46 (2) was prepared in 78% yield from the reaction of Cu8(Se)Se2P(OPr)2]6 (1) and NH4S2P(OEt)2 in toluene. The central selenide ion in 2 was characterized by 77Se NMR at delta -976 ppm. The simulated solid-state 31P NMR spectrum shows two components with an intensity ratio close to 55:45. The peak centered at 100.7 ppm is assigned to the 31P nuclei in the hexanuclear copper cluster, and that at 101.1 ppm is due to the octanuclear copper cluster. The single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis confirms the cocrystallization structures of Cu8(Se)S2P(OEt)2]6 (54%) and Cu6S2P(OEt)2]6 (46%) (2: trigonal, space group R3, a=21.0139(13) A, c=11.404(3) A, gamma=120 degrees, Z=3). While the octanuclear copper cluster possesses a 3-fold crystallographic axis which pass through the Cu2, Se, and Cu(2A) atoms, the six copper atoms having the S6 point group symmetry in Cu6S2P(OEt)2]6 form a compressed octahedron. The Cu8(mu8-Se) cubic core in Cu8(mu8-Se)S2P(OEt)2]6 is larger in size than the metal core in Cu8(mu8-Se)Se2P(OPr)2]6 (1) although the bite distance of the Se-containing bridging ligand is larger than that of the S ligand. To understand the nature of the structure contraction of the metal core and metal-mu8-Se interaction, molecular orbital calculations have been carried out at the B3LYP level of density functional theory. MO calculations suggest that Cu-mu8-Se interactions are not very strong and a half bond can be formally assigned to each Cu-mu8-Se bond. Moderate Cu...Cu repulsion exists, and it is the bridging ligands that are responsible for the observed Cu...Cu contacts. Hence, the S-ligating copper clusters have greater Cu...Cu separations because each Cu carries more positive charge in the presence of the more electronegative S-containing ligands.