A close-packed boron-rich 11-vertex molybdaborane with novel geometry

The reaction of an intermediate, generated from [Cp#MoCl 4] [Cp# = Cp or Cp; Cp = (η5-C 5H5), Cp= (η5-C5Me5)] and LiBH4.thf, with different chalcogen ligands yielded trimolybdaborane clusters 1-3, [(Cp#Mo)3(μ-H)B 8H6X2], (1: Cp# = Cp, X = H; 2: Cp# = Cp, X = H; 3: Cp# = Cp, X = Cl). Compounds 1-3 constitute an example of an unsaturated (n-4) sep cluster having very close structural similarities. These clusters represent 11-vertex boron-rich metallaboranes containing 66 cluster valence electrons (cve). All the compounds were fully characterized by various spectroscopic techniques, elemental analysis and the solid state structures were unequivocally established by X-ray diffraction analysis of 1-3. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.