Journal of Organometallic Chemistry 630 (2001) 215 – 220 www.elsevier.com/locate/jorganchem Isolation of a diketone species that is allylically bound to tungsten, and its relationship to a tungsten 2 -ketone complex Michael J. Chetcuti a, *, Phillip E. Fanwick b , Brian E. Grant a a Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Uniersity of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA b Department of Chemistry, Purdue Uniersity, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA Received 13 March 2001; received in revised form 27 May 2001; accepted 27 May 2001 Abstract The diketone complex [W(CO) 2 (-C 5 H 4 Me){ 3 -C(O)C (Ph)C (H)C (Ph)C  (H)C(O)C 5 Me 5 }] (3) was isolated from the reaction of PhC 2 H with a mixture of [Ni(CO)I(-C 5 Me 5 )] and [W(CO) 3 (-C 5 H 4 Me)] . Complex 3 contains an organic diketone fragment that is bound in a -allyl fashion to a tungsten atom. It was fully characterized by standard spectroscopic techniques and by a single-crystal X-ray diffraction study. The relationship of complex 3 to a structurally characterized cyclopentadienyl tungsten 2 -ketone species 1, and the likelihood that 3 and the methylcyclopentadienyl analog of 1 share common intermediates, are discussed. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Allyl complexes; Ketone; Nickel; Tungsten; Carbon – carbon coupling 1. Introduction The exploration of the chemistry of alkynes with organometallic complexes remains a fertile research area [1]. We have reported some of the rich chemistry that Ni–Mo and Ni–W hetero-bimetallic species demonstrate with alkynes [2]. We have also looked into the reactions of mixtures of the monometallic precur- sors of the hetero-bimetallic compounds with alkynes. When an in situ mixture of [M(CO) 3 (-C 5 H 5 )] (M =Mo, W) and [Ni(CO)I(-C 5 Me 5 )] is treated with PhC 2 H, unusual products which contain many new carboncarbon bonds have been isolated [3,4]. Among them is the 16-electron tungsten side-bound 2 -ketone complex 1 [3], which contains a pentamethylcyclopenta- diene (C 5 Me 5 ) group that has been the recipient of a Diels – Alder added PhC 2 H ligand. This adduct forms one of the two alkyl groups of the 2 -ketone ligand. The other ketonic group is formed by cyclo-oligomer- ization of three PhC 2 H ligands and a CO ligand to form a triphenyltropone species that binds in its enol form, via the oxygen, to the tungsten atom. The trimetal species 2, isolated from the simultaneous reac- tion of [Ni(CO)I(-C 5 Me 5 )], [Mo(CO) 3 (-C 5 H 5 )] and PhC 2 H, shows the likely fate of the Cp* stripped nickel atom [4]. The structures of complexes 1 and 2 are given in Fig. 1. How complex 1 forms, remains a mystery. Here, we describe the isolation and structural characterization of complex 3, a molecule that probably shares a common intermediate with the methylcyclopentadienyl analog of 1, the 2 -ketone complex 1. We also indicate that 1 (and by inference, 1) as well as the new species 3 require the presence of nickel to form, even though neither species contains this element. The C 5 Me 5 ligand trans- Fig. 1. The structures of complexes 1 and 2. * Corresponding author. Present address: Laboratoire de Chimie de Coordination, UMR CNRS 7513, Universite´ Louis Pasteur, 4 rue Blaise Pascal, 67070 Strasbourg, France. Tel.: +33-390-241316; fax: +33-390-241322. E-mail address: chetcuti@chimie.u-strasbg.fr (M.J. Chetcuti). 0022-328X/01/$ - see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S0022-328X(01)01027-0