Reactions of a Transient Carbonyl(chloro)(hydrido)ruthenium(II) Complex with Ethylene,Alkynes, and CO; Chemistry of the New Anion [Ru2(CO)4Cl5]−

A 97% yield of Ru ₃ (CO) ₁₂ ] (2) in 20 minutes is obtained simply by treating Ru(CO)₃Cl₂(thf)] with KOH under CO (1 atm). The reduction to Ru⁰ can be explained in terms of the facile reductive elimination of HCl from the transient hydrido complex 1 . Though elusive, the latter can be intercepted by olefins or alkynes to produce trappable alkyl or alkenyl complexes such as 3 and 4 .█ denotes a vacant coordination site.