Reaction of [{CuCl(Bu2tPH)}(4)] with [Ru-3(CO)(12)]: X-ray crystal structures of the chloride transfer products [Ru-3(CO)(7)(mu-H)(mu-PBu2t)(2)(mu-Cl)] and the electron-rich 50-electron cluster [Ru-3(CO)(6)(mu-PBu2t)(mu-Cl)(3)(Bu2tPH)]

Treatment of CuCl with (Bu2PH)-P-t in hexane afforded a colourless crystalline material which was characterized as [{CuCl((Bu2PH)-P-t)}(4)] (1) by an X-ray diffraction study. The reaction of 1 with [Ru-3(CO)(12)] in refluxing toluene leads to a mixture of products containing the electron-rich chloro-bridged cluster [Ru-3(CO)(6)(mu-PBu2t)(mu-Cl)(3)((Bu2PH)-P-t)] (2) besides the electron-precise complexes [Ru-3(CO)(7)(mu-H) (mu-PBu2t)(2)(mu-Cl)] (3) and [Ru-3(CO)(8)(mu-H)(2)(mu(3)-PBut)((Bu2PH)-P-t)] (4), respectively. No cluster expansion products were observed, therefore, the copper complex acts merely as phosphine and chloride transfer reagent. The molecular structures of the metal clusters 2 and 3 were determined by means of single-crystal X-ray structure analyses. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.