Carbene complexes. Part VI. Complexes from imidoyl chloride and rhodium(<scp>I</scp>) precursors, and the crystal and molecular structure of carbonyltri-iodo-[α-(N-methyl-α-methyliminobenzylamino)benzylidene-N,C]rhodium, I3(OC)Rh–CPh(NMe)CPh:NMe

The reaction of an imidoyl chloride R1C(Cl):NR2 with the RhI complex [Rh(CO)2Cl]2 in the rigorous absence of hydrogen chloride affords the RhIII carbene chelate Cl3(OC)[graphic omitted]R2. The chloride ligands are replaceable by Br– or I–, and the chelate bridge is cleaved by reaction with a tertiary phosphine. A single-crystal X-ray analysis of (IV) I3(OC)[graphic omitted]Me by the heavy-atom method has been refined to R 0&#183;047 for 2400 independent terms measured on a diffractometer: the complex has an approximately octahedral Rh environment, with Rh–C(carb) 1&#183;968(13), C(carb)–N 1&#183;328(16), Rh–N 2&#183;047(9), Rh–I 2&#183;662(4)—2&#183;774(4), and Rh–C(O) 1&#183;892(14)A. Crystals are monoclinic, a= 10&#183;83(1), b= 17&#183;24(2), c= 11&#183;52(1)A, β= 97&#183;3(2)&#176;, Z= 4, space group P21/n.