Reactivity of Diaminogermylenes with Ruthenium Carbonyl: Ru3Ge3 and RuGe2 Derivatives

The nature of the products of the reactions of [Ru3(CO)12] with diaminogermylenes depends upon the volume and the cyclic or acyclic structure of the latter. Thus, the triruthenium cluster [Ru3{μ-Ge(NCH2CMe3)2C6H4}3(CO)9], which has a planar Ru3Ge3 core and an overall C3h symmetry, has been prepared in quantitative yield by treating [Ru3(CO)12] with an excess of the cyclic 1,3-bis(neo-pentyl)-2-germabenzimidazol-2-ylidene in toluene at 100 °C, but under analogous reaction conditions, the acyclic and bulkier Ge(HMDS)2 (HMDS = N(SiMe3)2) quantitatively leads to the mononuclear ruthenium(0) derivative [Ru{Ge(HMDS)2}2(CO)3]. Mixtures of products have been obtained from the reactions of [Ru3(CO)12] with the cyclic and very bulky 1,3-bis(tert-butyl)-2-germaimidazol-2-ylidene under various reaction conditions. The Ru3Ge3 and RuGe2 products reported in this paper are the first ruthenium complexes containing diaminogermylene ligands.