Iridium Coordination Compounds of Stanna-<i>closo</i>-dodecaborate

The reaction of Vaska’s complex [IrCl(CO)(PPh3)2] with stanna-closo-dodecaborate [SnB11H11]2− (1) resulted in the formation of the trigonal bipyramidal iridium(I) compound [Ir(SnB11H11)2(CO)(PPh3)2]3− (2). In this compound, one stannaborate moiety can be readily substituted with CO or ethylene at RT and atmospheric pressure to give the trigonal bipyramidal compounds [Et4N][Ir(SnB11H11)(CO)2(PPh3)2] (3) and [Me4N][Ir(SnB11H11)(CO)(C2H4)(PPh3)2] (4). Oxidative addition of H2 was accomplished by the reaction of 2 with H2, yielding the iridium(III) compound [Et3NMe][IrH2(SnB11H11)(CO)(PPh3)2] (5), whereas the protonation of 2 resulted in the formation of [Et3NMe]2[IrH(SnB11H11)2(CO)(PPh3)2] (6). All compounds have been characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis, multinuclear NMR spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy, and elemental analysis.