Reductive carbonylation of TaCl
5 in the presence of1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane (dppe) under theappropriateconditions results in the formation ofTaCl(CO)
2(dppe)
2 (
1), asthe major product, and the possibly cyclic oligomer[TaCl(CO)
2(dppe)
2]
2x(
2, 2
x 4) as a minor product.Carbonylation of
1 (1 atm) results in the rapid butreversibleformation of TaCl(CO)
4(dppe) (
3).Solutions of all three compounds exhibit low levels ofparamagnetism, possiblyattributable to thermal population of low-lying triplet excited states.Crystal data for the toluene solvate of
1,C
68H
64ClO
2P
4Ta:triclinic,
P (No. 2),
a =13.937(12) Å,
b = 14.811(7) Å,
c= 14.929(9) Å,
= 102.30(5)
,
= 95.60(7)
,
= 98.41(5)
,
Z =2.