A comparison of the reactions of pentacarbonyliron with cyclic thioethers and related dialkyl sulfides

A facile synthesis of the compounds Fe(CO)(4)(ER2), where ER2 = SMe2, SEt2, or SeMe2, has been developed. It involves treatment of Fe(CO)(5) with trimethylamine N-oxide and the Group 16 compound. With cyclic thioethers, the same synthetic procedure yields dinuclear bis-thiolato complexes of the type Fe-2(CO)(6){mu -SCH2CH(R)S}, where R = H or Me. The structure of Fe-2(CO)(6){mu -SCH2CH(Me)S} has been determined from X-ray diffraction data. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.