Molybdenum and tungsten complexes of sulfene (thioformaldehyde S,S-dioxide).

Propionitrile complexes fac-[M(CO)(3)(P-P)(NCEt)] (M = Mo (3), W (4); P-P = Ph(2)PCH(2)PPh(2) (a), Ph(2)PC(2)H(4)PPh(2) (b), Ph(2)PC(3)H(6)PPh(2) (c), (S,S)-Ph(2)PCHMeCHMePPh(2) (d), Fe(C(5)H(4)PPh(2))(2) (e)) were synthesized from [M(CO)(3)(NCEt)(3)] and the corresponding diphosphine. Reactions of 3 and 4 with sulfur dioxide initially gave complexes fac-[M(CO)(3)(P-P)(eta(2)-SO(2))] (M = Mo (5), W (6)), which slowly isomerized to mer-[M(CO)(3)(P-P)(eta(1)-SO(2))] (M = Mo (7), W (8)). The structures of 7b and 8b were determined by X-ray crystallography.