Binuclear iron butane-1,2-dithiolate compounds with cyclohexyldiphenylphosphine or dicyclohexylphenylphosphine: Synthetic, spectroscopic, crystal structural, and electrochemical studies

In this article, two new binuclear iron compounds [Fe2(CO)5PPh(C6H11)2{µ-SCH2CH(CH2CH3)S}] (2) and [Fe2(CO)5PPh2(C6H11){µ-SCH2CH(CH2CH3)S}] (3), which can be regarded as the biomimics for the active site of [FeFe]-H2ases, have been synthesized by CO exchange of compound [Fe2(CO)6{μ-SCH2CH(CH2CH3)S}] (1) with cyclohexyldiph-enylphosphine or dicyclohexylphenylphosphine and their structures have been confirmed by spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and X-ray crystallography. They also exhibited good electrocatalytic activities for the generation of H2.