Photochemically Induced C-H Bond Activation and Ligand Transfer in the Reaction of [Cp₂Rh₂(CO)(CF₃C₂CF₃)] With [(Cp′) Mn (CO)₂( thf )]: Structural Characterization of the Rh₄ Product

Abstract

A room-temperature single-crystal X-ray diffraction study carried out on a product of a sunlight induced reaction between [Cp₂Rh₂(CO)(CF₃C₂CF₃)] and [(Cp′) Mn (CO)₂( thf )] in 2:1 ratio in hydrocarbon solution establishes it to be tetranuclear [(Cp₄Rh₄)(CF₃C=CHCF₃)₂(CH₃-C₅H₃)]; crystals of the latter are triclinic, Pī , a 15.803(9), b 13.445(8), c 8.966(6) Ǻ, α 75.92(5), β 80.68(5), γ 65.46(4)°, Z = 2. Full-matrix refinement for 3431 'observed' [I > 3σ(I)], absorption-corrected data converged at R 0.056. The structure comprises a pair of enantiomeric [(Cp₂Rh₂)(CF₃C=CHCF₃ binuclear units unsymmetrically linked by the central CH₃C₅H₃ ring, by way of the η¹,η²-C=CH and η¹,η²-C= CMe functionalities.