Monodentate N/S-donor benzothiazole and benzimidazole coordination to the [Re(CO)3]+ core.

[Display omitted] • Five novel rhenium(I) complexes were synthesized. • All complexes were characterized fully by 1H NMR, FTIR, UV–Vis and X-ray diffraction. • A rare four-membered Re 2 Cl 2 bridging ring was observed. • The ligands all coordinated in a monodentate fashion. The reactivity of the rhenium(I) precursor fac -[Re(CO) 5 Cl] with various benzo-fused ligands were studied. 2-Aminobenzothiazole (abt), mercaptobenzimidazole (mbi), N -(1,3-benzothiazol-2-yl)-2-chloroacetamide (bct), ethyl-(1 H -benzimidazol-2-yl-sulfanyl)acetate (bsa) and (dibenzothiazol-2-yl)tetraazathiapentalene (dbt) were chosen as the ligands of interest, where all ligands coordinated in a monodentate mode. The novel complexes isolated were fully characterized, with abt, mbi and dbt (L) resulting in rhenium complexes of the type fac -[ReCl(L) 2 (CO) 3 ]. However, the ligands bct and bsa produced [ReCl(bct)(CO) 3 (NCMe)] and the bridged species (µ-Cl) 2 [Re(bsa)(CO) 3 ] respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]