Chromium Tricarbonyl η6-Complexes of (η5-Cyclopentadienyl)(η4-1,3-Diphenylcyclobutadiene)Cobalt

The reaction of (η⁵-cyclopentadienyl)(η⁴-1,3-diphenylcyclobutadiene)cobalt ( I ) with excess Cr(CO)₃py₃ in BF₃OEt₂ yielded two identified heterometallic compounds. Compounds II and III with one and two phenyl rings complcxed with Cr(CO)₃ fragment(s), respectively. These compounds were characterized by mass, infrared, ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectra and elemental analysis. The crystal structure of II was determined. The Cr(CO)₃ fragment bends inward toward the cyclobutadicne ring due to its electron-withdrawing ability, in accord with Hunter's postulate. A sharp line due to the non-complexed phenyl ring was observed in the ¹HNMR spectrum, which implies that five protons are magnetically equivalent. The chemical shifts of two protons of the cyclobutadiene ring decreased from I to II then to III , possibly because of diminished deshielding effect from the phenyl ring in (arene)Cr(CO)₃.     

(η6‐Bi­phenyl)­tri­carbonyl­chromium and μ‐(η6:η6)‐bi­phenyl‐bis­(tricarbonyl­chromium)

The title compounds, [Cr(C₁₂H₁₀)(CO)₃] and [Cr₂(C₁₂H₁₀)(CO)₆], serve as a fundamental standard of comparison for other mono‐ and polysubstituted (η⁶‐bi­phenyl)­tri­carbonyl­chromium compounds. (η⁶‐Bi­phenyl)­tri­carbonyl­chromium has a typical piano‐stool coordination about the Cr center, and the dihedral angle between the planes of the phenyl rings is 23.55 (5)°. The corresponding angle in μ‐(η⁶:η⁶)‐bi­phenyl‐bis­(tri­carbonyl­chromium) is 0° because the mol­ecule occupies a crystallographic inversion center; the Cr atoms reside on opposite sides of the bi­phenyl ligand. Density functional theory and natural bonding orbital theory analyses were used to scrutinize the geometry of these and closely related compounds to explain important structural features.