A series of six-coordinate ''half-sandwich'' zirconocene phosphates and phosphonates have been synthesized by the reaction of Cp 2 ZrCl 2 with (diphenyl-, dibenzyl-)phosphate and methylphenylphosphinic acid under different conditions. All of the complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR and NMR ( 1 H, 13 C) spectroscopy. Except for complex 3, the structures of complexes 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 were confirmed by X-ray crystallography. The structure analyses reveal that complexes 1, 2, and 3 are trinuclear complexes with fascinating l 3 -oxygen bridging ligands, central to a Zr-O backbone (Cp 2 ZrCl 2 :ligand is 1:1) while complexes 4, 5, and 6 are centrosymmetric dinuclear complexes built up about the trapezoidal Zr 2 (l 2 -OH) 2 unit (Cp 2 ZrCl 2 :ligand is 1:2).