Reactions of substituted tetramethylcyclopentadienes with molybdenum hexacarbonyl

Crystal structure of the tetra-meth-yl(pheneth-yl)cyclo-penta-dienylmolybdenumtricarbonyl dimer

The structure of the dimer bis-{tricarbon-yl[η5-tetra-meth-yl(pheneth-yl)cyclo-penta-dien-yl]molybdenum}(Mo-Mo), [Mo2(C17H21)2(CO)6], at 102 K has triclinic (P ) symmetry. The reaction between tetra-meth-yl(pheneth-yl)cyclo-penta-diene and molybdenum hexa-carbonyl in refluxing xylenes for 18 h led to a 56% yield of the dimer as a red solid. The asymmetric unit of the structure is the tetra-meth-yl(pheneth-yl)cyclo-penta-dienylmolybdenumtricarbonyl moiety and the entire dimeric mol-ecule is generated by inversion symmetry. The Mo-Mo bond length is 3.2773 (3) Å, a value slightly above the mean value for all [CpMo(CO)3]2 compounds listed in the CSD and slightly below the mean for [Cp*Mo(CO)3]2 complexes.