Improved synthesis and crystal structure of tetrakis(acetonitrile)(η-1,5-cyclooctadiene)ruthenium(II) bis[tetrafluoroborate(1−)]

An improved, one-step synthesis of [Ru^II(1,5-COD)(CH₃CN)₄]²⁺ as the BF₄⁻ salt has been accomplished in 51% yield, an approximately 75% higher yield than the three-step literature synthesis of the corresponding PF₆⁻ salt. The improved synthesis consists of (i) grinding the insoluble [RuCl₂(1,5-COD)]_x precursor to increase the reaction rate and yield, (ii) treating the resultant [RuCl₂(1,5-COD)]_x with 2Ag⁺BF₄⁻ in refluxing acetonitrile with excess 1,5-COD present to inhibit 1,5-COD loss in the product and, most importantly, (iii) following the reaction directly by ¹H-NMR spectrometry which revealed that the substitution reaction of the Ru(II), d⁶ precursor is, as expected, quite slow and requires ca. 120 h. The [Ru(1,5-COD)(CH₃CN)₄][BF₄]₂ product was characterized by ¹H, ¹³C, and ¹⁹F-NMR, elemental analysis, and single-crystal X-ray crystallography. Problems in commercial Ru and F analyses are also addressed since this issue has been inadequately treated in the existing literature.