Synthesis and characterization of areneruthenium(II) dialkyldithiophosphate complexes: Single crystal structure of [Ru{SSP(OEt)(2)}(eta(6)-p-cymene)(PPh(3))][BPh(4)]

Reactions of [RuCl6(eta(6)-arene)](2) with ammonium salt of dialkyldithiophosphoric acid in 1:1 and 1:2 stoichiometry readily gave complexes of the type [Ru{SSP(OR)(2)}(Cl)(eta(6)-arene)] (arene = benzene, p-cymene; R = Et, Pr-n, Pr-i, (n)Bu or (5)Bu) and [Ru{SSP(OR)(2)}(2)(eta(6)-arene)] (R = Et; arene = p-cymene). The former complexes, on treatment with NaBPh(4) in acetone followed by addition of a neutral donor ligand (L), afforded cationic complexes [Ru{SSP(OEt)(2)}(eta(6)-p-cymene)L][BPh(4)] (L = py, PPh(3), (p-FC6H4)(3)P, AsPh(3)]. All the complexes were characterized by elemental analysis and NMR (H-1, (31)p) data. A single crystal X-ray structure determination of [Ru{SSP(OEt)(2)}(eta(6)-p-cymene)(PPh(3))][BPh(3))][BPh(4)] has established an octahedral configuration around the ruthenium atom. The structure consists of a ruthenium centre bonded to an eta(6)-p-cymene, a chelated dithiophosphate and a unidentate triphenylphosphine ligand.