Synthesis of Novel Amidinato(amidine) Complexes of Molybdenum via Bis(amidine) Complexes

The molybdenum complex [Mo(η 3 -allyl)Cl(CO) 2 (NCMe) 2 ] (1) reacted with two equivalents of amidines, ArN=C(R)NHAr (R = H. CH 3 ; Ar = C 6 H 5 , p-CH 3 -C 6 H 4 ) (2), to give corresponding his(amidine) complexes, [Mo(η 3 -allyl)Cl(CO) 2 (amidine) 2 ] (3). Upon a treatment of bis(amidine)molybdenum complexes (3) with a base, such as n-butyllithium, complexes (4) bearing both amidinato and amidine ligands were formed and isolated as a yellow solid. The amidine ligand in complexes 4 was easily substituted by PEt 3 to give amidinato(phosphine) complexes of molybdenum (5) as a red solid. These complexes were characterized spectroscopically as well as by X-ray analyses.