Syntheses and characterizations of thiolato-functionalized N-heterocyclic carbene Pd(II) complexes with normal and mesoionic binding modes

The thiolato-bridged dimeric Pd(II) NHC complex 1 has been synthesized from the reaction of thioester-functionalized imidazolium salt B and Pd(OAc)(2). The isolation of its interesting constitutional isomer 2 bearing both classical C(2)-bound and mesoionic C(4)-bound ligands coordinating to two different metal centers in the same complex allowed for a direct comparison of these isomeric carbenes. Reactivity studies of 1 with NaSCH(CH(3))(2) and NaBF(4) afforded the tetranuclear compound 3 with a [Pd(4)S(4)] macrocycle. All complexes have been fully characterized by multinuclei NMR spectroscopies, ESI mass spectrometry and X-ray diffraction analysis.