Carborane complexes of ruthenium(III): studies on thermal reaction chemistry and the catalyst design for atom transfer radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate

The heating of the 18-electron complex 3,3-(dppb)-3-H-3-Cl-closo-3,1,2-RuC(2)B(9)H(11)] (3) in benzene at 80 °C in the presence of a small amount of CCl(4) as initiator afforded paramagnetic 17-electron species 3,3-(dppb)-3-Cl-closo-3,1,2-RuC(2)B(9)H(11)] (4) along with minor amounts of two P-phenylene ortho-cycloboronated derivatives 3-Cl-3,3,8-{Ph(2)P(CH(2))(4)PPh-μ-(C(6)H(4)-ortho)}-closo-3,1,2-RuC(2)B(9)H(10)] (5) and 3,7-Cl(2)-3,3,8-{Ph(2)P(CH(2))(4)PPh-μ-(C(6)H(4)-ortho)}-closo-3,1,2-RuC(2)B(9)H(10)] (6) in total yield of ca. 80%. The heating of either 3 or 4 in toluene at 95 °C in the absence of CCl(4) led to the selective formation of 5, which was isolated in 64% and 46% yield, respectively. Thermolysis of 3 at higher temperatures (boiling toluene, 110 °C) gives novel paramagnetic species 3-Cl-3,3,7,8-{Ph(2)P(CH(2))(4)P-μ-(C(6)H(4)-ortho)(2)}-closo-3,1,2-RuC(2)B(9)H(9)] (7) featuring bis(ortho-cycloboronation) of both P-phenyl groups at the same phosphorus atom of the ruthenium-bound dppb ligand. All new paramagnetic complexes 4-7, as well as starting diamagnetic species 3, were characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and, in addition, by EPR spectroscopic studies of odd-electron complexes. Ruthenacarboranes 3-5 and 7 all display high efficiency as catalysts for the atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of methyl methacrylate (MMA). Complex 5 gave the best catalyst performance in terms of polydispersity; the PDI (M(w)/M(n)) of the polymer samples is as low as 1.15.