Construction of a novel copper(I) chain polymer of hexanuclear Cu6(2-SC5H4NH)6I6 cores with a new (mu 3-S) mode of bonding of pyridine-2-thione and of an unusual triangular Cu3I3(dppe)3(2-SC5H4NH) cluster.

The reactions of copper(I) iodide with pyridine-2-thione (2-SC(5)H(4)NH) in the presence of a series of diphosphane ligands, Ph(2)P[bond]X[bond]Ph(2)P [X = [bond](CH(2))(m)[bond], m = 1(dppm), 2 (dppe), 3 (dppp), 4 (dppb); [bond]CH[double bond]CH[bond] (dppen)], yielded an iodo-bridged hexanuclear Cu(I) linear polymer, [Cu(6)(mu(3)-SC(5)H(4)NH)(4)(mu(2)-SC(5)H(4)NH)(2)(I(4))(mu-I)(2)-](n).2nCH(3)CN (1). A similar reaction with 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane (dppe) and 2-SC(5)H(4)NH yielded a triangular cluster, Cu(3)I(3)(dppe)(3)(2-SC(5)H(4)NH), 2. In the chain polymer 1, three Cu(I) iodide and three 2-SC(5)H(4)NH ligands combined via bridging S donor atoms to form a boat-shaped trinuclear Cu(3)S(3)I(3) core, and two such cores combined in an inverse manner via four S-donor atoms (mu(3)-S) to form a centrosymmetric hexanuclear repeat unit, Cu(6)S(6)I(4)(mu-I)(2-), which finally formed the iodo-bridged infinite linear chain polymer 1. Linear chains are separated by the nonbonded acetonitrile molecules. Polymer 1 is the first such example of a linear chain formed by the hexanuclear Cu(6)S(6)I(6) core in copper chemistry as well as in metal-heterocyclic thioamide chemistry. In addition, it has the first mu(3)-S mode of neutral pyridine-2-thione ever reported. In the moiety Cu(3)I(3)(dppe)(3) of 2, two copper(I) centers are bridged by the iodide ligands forming a Cu(mu-I)(2)Cu core, while a third copper(I) center is terminally bonded to another iodide ligand. Polymer 2 is also rare, and the first triangular cluster of Cu(I) with an heterocyclic thioamide.