The hexafluorophosphate salts [Fe(C5H4'Bu)2]PF6 (1 ) and [C o^H /B u^lP F ö (2) crystal lize in isotypic structures with centrosymmetric cations which have a staggered (transoid) conformation of the exactly parallel ring ligands (conformational angle r = 180°). The tetrachlorocobaltate salt, [Q^CsIL'Bu^hCoCU (3), contains one almost eclipsed (r = 140.4°) and one almost staggered (r = 101.4°) cobaltocenium cation; in both cases, the cyclopentadienyl ring planes are slightly inclined (by a = 5.4° and 4.1°, respectively) to give more room to the tert-butyl substituents which are bent away from the metal in all three complexes 1 -3.
Intro d u ctio nIn the course of studies on ry5-(rerr-butyl-cyclopentadienyl) metal complexes, we have iso lated crystals of the salt [C o^IV B u^b C o C U (3) which contains two cobaltocenium sandwiches with different conformational arrangement of the ring ligands. For the purpose of comparison we then have determined the structures of the 1 ,1 '-di(/m-butyl)metallocenium hexafluorophosphates, [M(C5H4'Bu)2]PF6 (M = Fe (1), Co 2)). The struc tures of 1 and 2 are isotypic and contain strictly centrosymmetric (transoid) cations.
Results and DiscussionGeneral remarks on the structure o f 1,1'-disubstitu ted metallocenesThe conformational angle (r) in 1,1 '-disubstituted metallocenes is defined as the torsional angle C 1 -Z-Z'-C1, i. e. the dihedral angle between the planes which include the two cyclopentadienyl ring cen ters (Z, Z') and the ring carbon atom bearing the substituent R (C1 or C 1, respectively).A l,l'-disubstituted metallocene with two equal substituents (R) may then assume angles of r = 72 and 144° in the ideal eclipsed forms, and angles of eclipsed (t = 72°) staggered (t = 180°, "transoid") t = 36, 108 and 180° in the ideal staggered confor mations.It is not easy to predict the conformation of 1,1'-disubstituted ferrocenes. Whereas unsubstituted fer rocene is eclipsed (D 5h, r = 0°) [1 , 2 ], the permethylated analogue, Fe(C5Me5)2, is staggered (D5d, r = 36°) both in the crystal [3,4] and in the gas phase [5]. This can be ascribed to steric rea sons because the decamethylferrocenium cation, [Fe(C5Me5)2]+ , again prefers [6 -8 ] the ecliptic (D5h, r = 0) or almost ecliptic (e. g. r = 4° [8]) arrangement, as it is also found in ferrocenium salts such as [Fe^H s^JB iC U (r ~ 1° [9]) or [Fe(C5H5)2]FeCl4 (nearly eclipsed [10]). A similar situation is observed in the salts of the cobaltocenium cation which is isoelectronic with the 18e molecule ferrocene; The unsubsti tuted cobaltocenium cation is eclipsed in salts such as [CoCp2][SbPh2Cl2] [11], [CoCp2][Sb(R)Cl3]