metal-organic papers m2838 Elsegood et al.  [Ru(C 10 H 14 )Cl 2 (C 18 H 15 P)] doi:10.1107/S1600536806039869 Acta Cryst. (2006). E62, m2838–m2840 Acta Crystallographica Section E Structure Reports Online ISSN 1600-5368 Dichloro(g 6 -p-cymene)(triphenylphosphine)- ruthenium(II) Mark R.J. Elsegood,* Martin B. Smith and Noelia M. Sanchez-Ballester Chemistry Department, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, England Correspondence e-mail: m.r.j.elsegood@lboro.ac.uk Key indicators Single-crystal X-ray study T = 150 K Mean (C–C) = 0.004 A ˚ R factor = 0.028 wR factor = 0.067 Data-to-parameter ratio = 20.1 For details of how these key indicators were automatically derived from the article, see http://journals.iucr.org/e. Received 26 September 2006 Accepted 28 September 2006 # 2006 International Union of Crystallography All rights reserved The title compound, [Ru(C 10 H 14 )Cl 2 (C 18 H 15 P)], crystallizes with two molecules in the asymmetric unit. It adopts the classic pseudo-tetrahedral piano-stool structure. A comparison of the Ru—P, Ru—Cl, Ru—C(av) bond lengths and the sum of the P—Ru—Cl1, P—Ru—Cl2 and Cl1—Ru—Cl2 angles (for both independent molecules) with those of previously determined compounds [( 6 -arene)Ru(PPh 3 )Cl 2 ] reveals that the nature of the  6 -arene ligand has a marginal effect on these structural parameters. Comment Organometallic arene ruthenium(II) complexes have attracted much interest for a range of uses, including DNA- binding studies, chemosensors, highly selective receptors, catalysis and for the development of chiral half-sandwich compounds (Dorcier et al., 2005; Buryak & Severin, 2005; Ion et al., 2006; Morris et al. , 2006; Ganter, 2003). Tertiary phos- phines, such as the ubiquitous triphenylphosphine, are known to rapidly cleave Ru—Cl—Ru bridges in dinuclear arene complexes to give achiral (Baldwin et al., 2002; Hansen & Nelson, 2000; Therrien et al., 2004) or chiral (Therrien & Su ¨ ss- Fink, 2004; Vieille-Petit et al. (2003) mononuclear compounds of the type [( 6 -arene)Ru(PPh 3 )Cl 2 ]. Recently we reported (Dann et al., 2006) the supramolecular chemistry of [( 6 -p- cymene)Ru(PR 3 )Cl 2 ] complexes with highly functionalized P- monodentate tertiary phosphines. During efforts to prepare a mixed-metal Cu/Ru complex using pyrazine-2,3-dicarboxylic acid as a bridging ligand, we isolated and crystallographically verified the structure of the title pseudo-tetrahedral ruthe- nium(II) triphenylphosphine complex, (I).