A comparison of the reactions of pentacarbonyliron with cyclic thioethers and related dialkyl sulfides

A facile synthesis of the compounds Fe(CO)4(ER2), where ER2=SMe2, SEt2, or SeMe2, has been developed. It involves treatment of Fe(CO)5 with trimethylamine N-oxide and the Group 16 compound. With cyclic thioethers, the same synthetic procedure yields dinuclear bis-thiolato complexes of the type Fe2(CO)6{μ-SCH2CH(R)S}, where R=H or Me. The structure of Fe2(CO)6{μ-SCH2CH(Me)S} has been determined from X-ray diffraction data.