Silver Alkynyl-Phosphine Clusters: An Electronic Effect of the Alkynes Defines Structural Diversity

The face-capping triphosphine, 1,1,1-tris(diphenylphosphino)methane (tppm), together with bridging alkynyl ligands and the counterions, facilitates the formation of a family of silver complexes, which adopt cluster frameworks of variable nuclearity. The hexanuclear compounds [Ag6(C2C6H4-4-X)3(tppm)2(An–)3] (X = H (1), CF3 (2), OMe (3), An– = CF3SO3–; X = OMe (4), An– = CF3COO–) are produced for the electron-accepting to moderately electron-donating alkynes and the appropriate stoichiometry of the reagents. 1 and 3 undergo an expansion of the metal core when treated with 1 equiv of Ag+ to give the species [Ag7(C2C6H4-4-X)3(tppm)2(CF3SO3)3](CF3SO3) (X = H (5), OMe (6)). The electron-donating substituent (X = NMe2) particularly favors this Ag7 arrangement (7) that undergoes geometry changes upon alkynylation, resulting in the capped prismatic cluster [Ag7(C2C6H4-4-NMe2)4(tppm)2(CF3SO3)](CF3SO3)2 (8). Alternatively, for the aliphatic tBu-alkyne, only the octanuclear complex [Ag8(C2But)4{(PPh2)3CH}2(CF3SO3)2](...