The reaction of a potentially N2S-donor bis[benzo(thiazole/imidazole)] with the fac-[Re(CO)3]+ and cis-[ReO2]+ cores

The reactions of bis(benzothiazol-2-ylethyl)sulfide (bts) and its benzimidazole analogue (btn), both with a N2S-donor atom set, with [Re(CO)5Br] and cis-[ReO2I(PPh3)2] were studied. The X-ray crystal structure of fac-[Re(CO)3(bts)Br] shows that bts acts as a bidentate NS-donor ligand, with a free uncoordinated benzothiazole group. With rhenium(V) the dimer (μ-O)2[Re2O2(btn)2]I2 was isolated, in which btn acts as a tridentate N2S chelate to each metal centre. Each oxo-bridge is unsymmetrical, with unequal Re-O distances.