Alkylidynetricobalt nonacarbonyl clusters 1,2 are easily prepared by reaction of dicobalt octacarbonyl with trihaloalkanes and are more stable against auto-oxidation than the parent dicobalt octacarbonyl. Since the clusters can be also synthesized by heating a solution of terminal alkyne-dicobalt hexacarbonyls, 3,4 the clusters are more thermally stable than the structurally similar alkyne-dicobalt hexacarbonyls. We recently reported that one of the clusters, ...
