A hexanuclear copper arylselenolate: synthesis, structure and proposal for its rearrangement

Copper(I) oxide reacts with selenol 2,4,6-Pri3C6H2-SeH in ethanol to give the hexanuclear copper(I) selenolate {Cu[Se(2,4,6-Pri3C6H2)]}6 of 6, the solid state structure of which consists of a disordered Cu6 octahedron embedded in an antiprism formed by six selenium centres of the selenolate residues; this leads us to propose an exchange mechanism for the equilibration of all copper positions.