Synthesis of high-nuclearity carbonyl–phosphine clusters of palladium under mild conditions and X-ray crystal structure of Pd38(µ3-CO)4(µ2-CO)24(PEt3)12

The large Pd38(CO)28(PEt3)12 carbonyl–phosphine cluster, obtained by a general phosphine abstracting route by the action of Pd(OAc)2 on the ten-vertex Pd10(CO)12(PEt3)6 cluster, is shown by an X-ray study to contain a four-layer fragment of a distorted cubic close packing with an interstitial Pd4 tetrahedron.