A re-investigation of the reaction of [RuCl2(CO)(3)](2) with C5H5(Me(3)Si) X-ray structure determination of [Ru(CO)(3)(eta-C5H5)][fac-RuCl3(CO)(3)]

The reaction of [RuCl2(CO)(3)](2) with C5H5(SiMe(3)) has been re-investigated. In our hands, in refluxing tetrahydrofuran, the reaction gives consistently [Ru(CO)(3)(eta-C5H5)][fac-RuCl3(CO)(3)], 1, and [RuCl(CO)(2)(eta-C5H5)], 2, in 68% and 12% yield respectively. The reaction of CO with commercially available hydrated OsCl3 gives [OsCl2(CO)(3)](2) in 44% yield. The crystal structure of [Ru(CO)(3)(eta-C5H5)][fac-RuCl3(CO)(3)] is reported; superlattice symmetry is observed.