Synthesis and x-ray crystal structure of zerovalent tungsten aryloxide dimers

The intermediacy of low-valent group 6 transition-metal alkoxide complexes has been established for catalytic processes such as aldehyde/ketone reduction and methanol carbonylation. The coordination of μ2-alkoxide derivatives of tungsten is reported herein. These complexes were found to exhibit facile CO ligand exchange as evidenced by the rapid incorporation of 13CO. The infrared spectral features of the complexes are reported, and the crystallographic data from x-ray diffraction studies are included