Dichlorido{[(diphenyl-phosphino)meth-yl]bis-(2-methyl-phen-yl) phosphine-² P,P′}palladium(II)

In the title compound, [PdCl2(C27H₈6P2)] or PdCl2[(C ₆H₅)2PCH₈P(C₆H₄CH ₃)2], the palladium center has a distorted square-planar geometry. There are two crystallographically independent mol-ecules in the asymmetric unit. The dihedral angle between the PdP2 and PdCl2 planes is 2.95 (4)° in one independent mol-ecule and 5.15 (4)° in the other. The P- Pd- P and P- C- P bond angles are significantly distorted because of the small bite angle of the chelating (bis-phosphino)methane ligand. The steric demands of the substituted rings in the mixed ligand cause a slight elongation of the Pd- P(C₆H₄CH₃)2 bond relative to the Pd- P(C ₆H₅)2 bond. In one molecule the tolyl ring shows positional disorder in a 0.58 (2):0.42 (2) ratio, in the other molecule the phenyl ring shows positional disorder in a 0.838 (9):0.162 (9) ratio.