Generation of oxo-carbide clusters from direct scission of a coordinated carbonyl ligand

In this paper, we report the synthesis and characterization of heterometallic carbonyl clusters Cp2W2Ru3(CO)13 and LW(O)L'WRu3(μ5-C)(CO)11, L, L' = Cp, Cp*. Formation of the latter oxo-carbido clusters represents a unique example of direct scission of the C-O bond. The initial spectroscopic analysis confirms that the complex is identical to the partially characterized cluster complex synthesized from the photochemical reaction of [CpW(CO)3]2 with Ru3(CO)9BH5.