Synthesis, complete NMR assignment and structural study of a steroidal dimer of 17α-ethynyl-5α,10α-estran-17ß-ol with diethynylbenzene spacer.

A phenylene-bridged steroidal dimer derived from 17α-ethynyl-5α,10α-estran-17ß-ol with molecular rotor-like architecture was synthesized to investigate the supramolecular interactions directing the crystallization of these systems. Structures with varying importance in complementarity between H-bonding and hydrophobic interactions can be observed directing the packing of the obtained crystals, depending on the synthetic stage, though conserving the same space group for both systems. Such behavior clearly shows the versatility achievable using steroids as crystal packing directors. Alongside this structural study, the complete NMR assignment is presented for the dimer, and precursors, in which the steroids present an unconventional and noteworthy A-B ring fusion.

Coupling of acetylene molecules on ruthenium clusters, involving cleavage of C-Si bonds in the alkyne and coordination of a phenyl ring of a SiPh3 group.

The reaction of [Ru3(CO)12] with the disubstituted acetylene Me3SiC≡CSiMe3 yields several compounds where cleavage of the C-Si bond has occurred thus allowing an easy coupling of carbon fragments to produce allene complexes [Ru4(CO)12(µ4-η(3)-Me3SiCCCSiMe3)] (2), differently substituted metallacycle compounds [Ru3(µ2-CO)2(CO)6{µ3-C(R)C(SiMe3)C(R')C(SiMe3)}] (3) [R = SiMe3, R' = CH3 (3a); R = H, R' = CH3 (3b); R = C≡CSiMe3; R' = H (3c)] and a pentanuclear ruthenium cluster containing three separate alkyne units; two with one SiMe3 substituent and one with two SiMe3 substituents, coordinated to the metal framework [Ru5(CO)12{µ3-(C2SiMe3)2}µ2-C2(SiMe3)2] (4). Another product of the reaction is the acetylide derivative [(µ-H)Ru3(CO)9(CCSiMe3)] (1a). In order to determine if this was an intermediate for the formation of the products already mentioned, the reaction of this compound was carried out with the two terminal alkynes HCCSiMe3 and HCCSiPh3. In the case of the reaction with the SiMe3 derivative, products included the same metallocyclopentadiene derivatives as well as the pentanuclear cluster already mentioned. If the acetylene is the SiPh3 derivative, products show coupling of SiPh3CC units with CCSiMe3 fragments and CO molecules, coordinated to mononuclear [Ru(CO)2(CCSiPh3){η(5)-(CCSiPh3)2C(OH)}] (7), dinuclear [Ru2(CO)3{Ph3Si(H)CC(H)CC(SiMe3)C(O)C(SiPh3)C(H)}] (8) and trinuclear [Ru3(CO)4{(Ph3Si(H)CC(H)CC(SiMe3)}{(H)CC(SiPh3)C(O)}] (9) clusters. One important characteristic in compounds 8 and 9 is that one of the phenyl rings of the SiPh3 substituent is η(6) coordinated to a ruthenium atom. Compounds 2 to 4(a-c) and 7 to 9 were characterized spectroscopically and by X-ray diffraction.

p-Tolyl bis-(o-tolyl-amido)-phosphinate.

In the title compound, C(21)H(23)N(2)O(2)P, the P atom has a distorted tetra-hedral configuration. The O atom of the OC(6)H(4)-4-CH(3) group and the N atoms show sp(2) character. In the crystal, adjacent mol-ecules are linked by N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds into helical chains parallel to the b axis.