Construction of M–M bonds in late transition metal complexes

The 16-electron Co, Rh and Ir half-sandwich complexes of Cp#M[E2C2(B10H10)] and Cp#M(E2S2C6H4) (M = Co, Rh, Ir, Ru; E = S, Se) containing chelating 1,2-dicarba-closo-dodecaborane-1,2-dichalcogenolato ligands and benzenedithiolato ligands are promising precursors to build multimetallic clusters by reactions with low oxidation state late transition metal reagents. Such reactions lead to successful constructions of M–M bonds between iridium, rhodium, cobalt, ruthenium, and other late transition metals. Most of these complexes have been characterized by X-ray single crystal determinations and some have been studied by computational methods. Such theoretical studies reveal the covalent bonding nature of those multinuclear complexes. Some of these clusters have been found to have interesting nonlinear optical properties.