Inorganic Chemistry, Vol.49, No.13, 5986-5991, 2010
The Trigonal Prismatic Cluster Compound W6CCl15 and a Carambolage of Tungsten Clusters in the Structure of the Heteroleptic Cluster Compound W30C2(Cl,Br)(68)
Reactions between W6Cl12 and carbon halides can initiate a cascade of reactions and reaction products, yielding W6Cl18, W6CCl18, and W6CCl15 with increasing temperature, before decomposition into tungsten carbide is obtained. The new compound W6CCl15 and the new heteroleptic compound W30C2(Cl,Br)(68) obtained from these reactions were structurally characterized. The structure of W30C2X68 combines a carambolage of two distinct octahedral and one centered trigonal prismatic cluster in one structure as refined by X-ray single-crystal diffraction (P (1) over bar, Z = 1; a = 12.003(2) angstrom, b= 14.862(3) angstrom, c= 15.792(3) angstrom, alpha = 88.75(2)degrees, beta = 68.85(2)degrees, gamma = 71.19(2)degrees). The unit cell content W30C2X68 accommodates five hexanuclear tungsten clusters, similar by a total of three octahedral [W6X8] type clusters and two carbon-centered trigonal prismatic [W6CX12] type clusters, sharing terminal halogen atoms to form a network structure. The trigonal prismatic cluster compound W6CCl15 (P2(1)/c, Z = 4; a = 9.8830(4) angstrom, b = 11.8945(4) angstrom, c = 17.8670(7) angstrom, beta = 107.883(2)degrees) is related to the already known compound W6CCl16. According to X-ray powder structure refinement, the structure is showing a special connectivity pattern with short intercluster W-W contacts between trigonal prismatic cluster units.