A Simple Decarbonylative Route to Heterodinuclear Alkylborylene Complexes

A new, photolytic route to heterodinuclear alkylborylene complexes is presented using the terminal manganese borylene complex [(η5-C5H5)­(OC)2Mn­(BtBu)]. Using this route, three new heterodinuclear alkylborylene complexes were prepared (Mn/Cr and Mn/Co), in addition to a known dimanganese alkylborylene complex usually prepared by salt elimination. The complexes have been characterized by NMR and IR spectroscopy as well as single-crystal X-ray crystallography. The overall picture gained from the spectroscopic and structural data is that the two metals in the Mn/Cr and Mn/Mn complexes appear to share the boron atom more evenly, while the cobalt fragment in the Mn/Co complex is more loosely bound to the boron atom.