Reactions of Boranes and Metallaboranes with Phosphines

This paper reports extensions of the well-established field of phosphine–borane chemistry. Linked clusters, for example, {[(PPh3)2(CO)OsB4H7-3-BH2-PPh2]2 [(Fe(C5H4)2]}, are formed in reactions of rigid backboned bidentate phosphines with {2,2,2-(PPh3)2(CO)-nido-2-OsB5H9]. Reaction of bidentate phosphines with the unsaturated clusters [8,8-PPh3)2-nido-8,7-RhSB9H10] and [9,9-(PPh3)2-nido-9,7,8-RhC2B8 H11] leads to the isolation of novel species such as {1-(PPh3)[1,3-(µ-dppm)]-closo -1,2-RhSB9H8},with a dppm molecule bridging adjacent metal and boron vertices in the cage, [1,1-(ç2-dppe)-3-(ç1-dppm)-closo-1,2-RhSB 9H8], a mixed ligand system, and {9,9-ç2-[(ç2-BH3)PPh2PCH2 PPh2]-nido- 9,7,8-RhC2B8H11} which contains a bidentate dppm BH3 moiety. The formation of bidentate phosphine-linked main group transition-metal moieties such as [BH3PPh2(CH)nPPh2IrCp*Cl2] is also described as is an example of a bidentate phosphine-polyhedral borane adduct [NR4][B11H12(dppm)] in which the borane cage is isoelectronic with [B11H14]–. Finally, a novel oxidative coupling reaction promoted by Cp2ZrCl2/n-BuLi to form the new nonaborane cage system, arachno -B9H11(PPh3)2, an unusual homolog of the well-known species B10H12(PPh3)2, is reported.