Briefly stated, the present invention encompasses a new class of rhenium 1,1-dithioacid complexes and their method of preparation. The complexes have the general formula [L.sub.2 Re(.mu.-S)].sub.2 wherein L is a dithioacid or similar ligand, and .mu. denotes the fact that the sulfur atoms in the core of the complex bridge the two rhenium atoms in the complex. Thus, the core structure for such typical compounds is generally of the form: ##STR1## where the dangling valences are associated with the sulfur atoms of a 1,1-dithioacid, L.