Geometries and properties of bimetallic phosphido-bridged complex Cp(CO)2W(μ-PPh2)W(CO)5 and Cp(CO)3W(μ-PPh2)W(CO)5

Complete geometry optimizations were carried out by HF and DFT methods to study the molecular structure of binuclear transition-metal compounds (Cp(CO)3W(μ-PPh2)W(CO)5) (I) and (Cp(CO)2W(μ-PPh2)W(CO)5) (II). A comparison of the experimental data and calculated structural parameters demonstrates that the most accurate geometry parameters are predicted by the MPW1PW91/LANL2DZ among the three DFT methods. Topological properties of molecular charge distributions were analyzed with the theory of atoms in molecules. (3, −1) critical points, namely bond critical point, were found between the two tungsten atoms, and between W1 and C10 in complex II, which confirms the existence of the metal-metal bond and a semi-bridging CO between the two tungsten atoms. The result provided a theoretical guidance of detailed study on the binuclear phosphido-bridged complex containing transition metal-metal bond, which could be useful in the further study of the heterobimetallic phosphido-bridged complexes.