Decacarbonyldirhenium (1) reacts upon UV irradiation with allene (2), 1,2-butadiene (3) and 2,3-pentadiene (4) preferentially by CO substitution and oxidative rearrangement to the corresponding enneacarbonyl-μ-η1:3-endiyl-dirhenium complexes 5, 9, and 15 and to the octacarbonyl-μ-η2:2-allene-dirhenium complexes 6, the stereoisomers 10, 11, and 16. At elevated temperature 5, 9, and 15 loose CO and yield by a reductive rearrangement also the complexes 6, 10, 11, and 16. In addition to these main products, depending upon the allene derivative used, various by-products are obtained.By-products of the reaction o f 1 with 2 are octacarbonyl-μ-η3:3-(2,3-dimethylene-buta-1,4- diyl)dirhenium (7) and μ-η2:2-allene-hexacarbonyl-μ-η1:3-1-propene-1,3-diyl-dirheniurn (8). The photo reaction of 1 with 3 yields, in addition to 9-11, tetracarbonyl-η3-(E-5-ethylidene- 4-methyl-2-cyclopenten-1-yl)rhenium (12) and tetracarbonyl-η3-(Z-5-ethyliden-4- methyl-2-cyclopenten-1-yl)rhenium (13) as a mixture of isomers. 1 and 4 form the by-products tetracarbonyl-η3-(EZ-3-penten-2-yl)rhenium (17), tetracarbonyl-η3-(EE-3-penten-2-yl)rhenium (18) and heptacarbonyl-μ-η1:2:1:2-(4,5-dimethyl-2,6-octadiene-3,6-diyl)dirhenium (19) with an unusually bridging and chelating ligand. The constitutions of the reaction products have been concluded from the IR and 1H NMR spectra. For 19 the crystal and molecular structure has been determined by X-ray diffraction analysis.
