Hypoelectronic metallaboranes: Synthesis, structural characterization and electronic structures of metal-rich cobaltaboranes

Reaction of [Cp∗CoCl]2 (Cp∗ = η5-C5Me5) with [LiBH4·THF] in toluene at −70 °C, followed by thermolysis with 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (C7H5NS2) in boiling toluene led to the isolation of a range of cobaltaborane clusters, [(Cp∗Co)2B7H6OMe], 1; [(Cp∗Co)3B8H7R], 2a, b (2a: R = H; 2b: R = Me); [(Cp∗Co)3B8H8S], 3 and [(Cp∗Co)2B4H4RR′], 4a–d (4a: R, R′ = H; 4b: R = Me, R′ = H; 4c: R = H, R′ = Me and 4d: R, R′ = Me). In parallel to the formation of compounds 1–4, the reaction also yielded known [(Cp∗Co)3B4H4] in good yield. Compound 1 may be considered as 9-vertex hypoelectronic cluster with C1 symmetry, where cobalt atoms occupy the degree 5 vertices. All the dicobaltaboranes 4a–d contains two μ3-H protons and found to be very reactive. As a result, one of them (4a) when reacted with Fe2(CO)9 and sulfur powder yielded, almost immediately, [(Cp∗Co)2B4H5SFe3(CO)9], 5 and [(Cp∗Co)2B3H3(μ-CO)Fe(CO)3], 6. All the new compounds have been characterized in solution by mass, 1H, 11B, 13C NMR spectroscopy and elemental analysis. The structural types were unequivocally established by X-ray crystallographic analysis of compounds 1–6. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations on the model compounds 1′ and 2′ (1′, and 2′ are the Cp analog of 1, and 2a respectively, Cp = C5H5) yield geometries in agreement with the structure determinations. The existence of large HOMO–LUMO gap of these molecules rationalizes the isocloso description for 2a. Bonding patterns in the structure have been analyzed on the grounds of DFT calculations.