Thermal reactions of[Ru
2(CO)
4(
-O
2CMe)(
-DPPM)
2]
+([
1]
+) with an excess amount ofneutral two-electron nucleophiles in MeCN have been studied. TheP-CH
2 bond of onecoordinated DPPM ligand can be cleaved, depending on the choice of thenucleophiles used.Reactions of [
1]
+ with MeCN andphosphite P(OMe)
3 afford only substitutedproducts[Ru
2(CO)
2L
2(
-O
2CMe)(
-DPPM)
2]
+(L = MeCN ([
2a]
+), P(OMe)
3([
2b]
+)) via intermediates[Ru
2(CO)
3L(
-O
2CMe)(
-DPPM)
2]
+(L = MeCN ([
3a]
+), P(OMe)
3([
3b]
+)). Compounds[
2a]
+and [
3a]
+ can be prepared alternatively fromdecarbonylation reaction of [
1]
+ with asuitableamount of Me
3NO in MeCN at ambient temperature, andthe structure of [
3a][BPh
4]hasbeen determined by X-ray diffraction. Reactions of[
1]
+ with phosphines (PR
3)PPh
3, PPh
2Me, and PEt
3, however, yield unexpected products,[Ru
2(CO)
2(PR
3)
2(
-O
2CMe)(
-DPPM)(
-PPh
2)] (
4) and[Ph
2PCH
2PR
3][BPh
4](
5). The triphenylphosphine products,
4a and[
5a]
+,can be prepared alternatively from the thermal reaction of either[
2a]
+ or [
3a]
+with excessPPh
3. Reaction of [
1]
+ witha stoichiometric amount of PPh
3 helped to reveal thepresenceof a cationic intermediate[Ru
2(CO)
2(PR
3)(
1,
2-CH
2PPh
2)(
-O
2CMe)(
-DPPM)(
-PPh
2)]
+([
6]
+),produced apparently from[Ru
2(CO)
3(PR
3)(
-O
2CMe)(
-DPPM)
2]
+([
3c]
+). An electronicsupersaturation rather than a transient unsaturation is proposed toaccount for the observedP-CH
2 bond cleavage taking place for[
3c]
+. Both the spectroscopic and theX-ray structuralresults of the triphenylphospine intermediate[
6a][BPh
4] indicate the presence of twoisomericforms in an approximate ratio of 1:5, differing probably in therelative orientation of theCH
2PPh
2 group with respect to thecarboxylato bridge.