Design of Novel Hexametallic Cartwheel Molecules from Persubstituted Benzene Compounds

The cartwheel complexes A are novel, nano-sized hexametallic species available from persubstituted benzenes C(6)[3,5-(CH(2)Y)(2)C(6)H(3)] (Y=NMe(2), P(O)Ph(2), PPh(2), SPh). The molecular structure of A (Y=SPh, ML(n)=PdCl) shows C(3) symmetry with adjacent radial Pd-Pd separations of 7.339(2) and 8.006(2) Å and a diametrically opposed Pd-Pd separation of 15.340(2) Å. Because of their size hexametallic species such as A are potential homogeneous catalysts in organic reactions which can be recovered by nanomembrane filtration techniques.