Cleavage of the Carbon−Sulfur Bonds in Thiophenes by a Binuclear Ruthenium Complex

The dinuclear polyhydride [Cp*RuH2]2 (Cp* = C5Me5) reacts with thiophene at ambient temperature to give a C−S ring-opened “flyover” complex in which all atoms are bound to the metal centers. A similar reaction with 2-methylthiophene also gives a related product. The products were characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction.