Azido-(benzonitrile-κN)[hydrido-tris(pyrazol-1-yl-κN)borato](triphenyl-phosphine-κP)ruthenium(II).

Facile ligand substitution is observed when the ruthenium-azide complex, [RuN(3)(Tp)(PPh(3))(2)] [Tp,HB(pz)(3), pz = pyrazol-yl, PPh(3) = triphenyl-phosphine] is treated with benzo-nitrile, yielding the title compound, [Ru(C(9)H(10)BN(6))(N(3))(C(7)H(5)N)(C(18)H(15)P)]. The asymmetric unit contains two crystallographically independent mol-ecules. In each one, the Ru(II) atom is six-coordinated in a distorted octa-hedral geometry by five N atoms from an htpb ligand, an azide ligand and a benzonitrile ligand and one P atom from a triphenyl-phosphine (tpp) ligand. The azide group is almost linear and is coordinated to Ru with an average Ru-N-N angle of 124.9 (3)°.