Synthesis of manganese and ruthenium complexes of phenyl trimethylsilane, diphenyltetramethyldisilane and poly(methylphenylsilane)

The reaction of [Mn(CO)(5)](+) with phenyltrimethylsilane (L-1) or diphenyltetramethyldisilane (L-2) affords [Mn(CO)(3)L-1][BF4] and [Mn(CO)(3)L-2][BF4] in which the silane ligand is eta(6)-coordinated via an aromatic ring. A similar procedure using poly(methylphenylsilane) (PMPS) as the ligand resulted in very low incorporation of Mn(CO)(3)(+) fragments into the polymer. A loading of 10% was achieved, however, by using [(naphthalene)Mn(CO)(3)][BF4] as a Mn(CO)(3)(+) transfer reagent to form the copolymer poly(methylphenylsilane-stat-methyl(eta(6)-phenyltricarbonylmanganesetetrafluoroborate)silane). Reaction of [(p-cymene)Ru(O3SCF3)(2)](x) (p-cymene = 4-isopropyltoluene) with L-1 affords air sensitive [Ru(p-cymene)L-1][O3SCF3](2). Higher yields of the related complex [Ru(p-cymene)L-1][BF4](2) were obtained by addition of L-1 to a mixture of [(p-cymene)RuCl2](2) and AgBF4. Only poorly characterised copolymers containing ruthenium were obtained by analogous reactions with PMPS. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.