Zn···Zn interactions at nickel and palladium centers† †Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. CCDC 1478225–1478229. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/c6sc02106a Click here for additional data file.

The analogy between ZnR fragments and the hydrogen radical represents a fruitful concept in organometallic synthesis. The organozinc(II) and -zinc(I) sources ZnMe2 (Me 1⁄4 methyl) and [Zn2Cp*2] (Cp* 1⁄4 pentamethylcyclopentadienyl) provide one-electron fragments $ZnR (R 1⁄4 Me, Cp*), which can be trapped by transition metal complexes [LaM], yielding [Lb(ZnR)n]. The addition of the dizinc compound [Zn2Cp*2] to coordinatively unsaturated [LaM] by the homolytic cleavage of the Zn–Zn bond can be compared to the classic oxidative addition reaction of H2, forming dihydride complexes [LaM(H)2]. It has also been widely shown that dihydrogen coordinates under preservation of the H–H bond in the case of certain electronic properties of the transition metal fragment. The s-aromatic triangular clusters [Zn3Cp*3] + and [Zn2CuCp*3] may be regarded as the first indication of this so far unknown, side-on coordination mode of [Zn2Cp*2]. With this background in mind the question arises if a series of complexes featuring the Zn2M structural motif can be prepared exhibiting a (more or less) intact Zn–Zn interaction, i.e. di-zinc complexes which are analogous to non-classical dihydrogen complexes of the Kubas type. In order to probe this idea, a series of interrelated organozinc nickel and palladium complexes and clusters were synthesized and characterized as model compounds: [Ni(ZnCp*)(ZnMe)(PMe3)3] (1), [Ni(ZnCp*)2(ZnMe)2(PMe3)2] (2), [{Ni(CN Bu)2(m2-ZnCp*)(m2-ZnMe)}2] (3), [Pd(ZnCp*)4(CN Bu)2] (4) and [Pd3Zn6(PCy3)2(Cp*)4] (5). The dependence of Zn/Zn interactions as a function of the ligand environments and the metal centers was studied. Experimental X-ray crystallographic structural data and DFT calculations support the analogy between dihydrogen and dizinc transition metal complexes.