Synthesis and structures of metallocene complexes of iron(II) and ruthenium(II) derived from 9,9′-spirobifluorene

Reaction between 9,9′-spirobifluorene and [CpM]⁺ (where M = Fe and Ru) equivalents gives the complexes [CpRu(η⁶-SBF)][PF₆] (1), [(CpRu)₂(η⁶,η⁶-SBF)][PF₆]₂ (2) and [(CpFe)₂(η⁶,η⁶-SBF)][PF₆]₂ (3), respectively. Single crystal X-ray structures of 1 and 3 show that the metal atoms exhibit distorted η⁶-coordination to SBF phenyl moieties primarily as a consequence of steric interactions between Cp and SBF. The structure of 3 contains each of the possible C₂ enantiomers whereas NMR spectroscopy shows signals consistent with a 1:1 mixture of C₂ and C₁ stereoisomers for both 2 and 3. In conjunction with electrochemical data the observations are consistent with SBF acting as a molecule containing two independent biphenyl moieties.