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

In the title compound, [PdCl(2)(C(27)H(26)P(2))] or PdCl(2)[(C(6)H(5))(2)PCH(2)P(C(6)H(4)CH(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 PdP(2) and PdCl(2) 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(C(6)H(4)CH(3))(2) bond relative to the Pd-P(C(6)H(5))(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.