Bromo dimethyl sulfoxide osmium(II) complexes were synthesized: trans-[OsBr2(dmso-S)4] (1) was obtained by the reaction of K2[OsBr6] with DMSO in the presence of SnBr2 at 100°C and cis,fac-[OsBr2(dmso-S)3(dmso-O)] (2) was prepared by thermal isomerization of 1 in a DMSO solution at 150°C. The coordination mode of DMSO molecules was determined by IR and 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that compound 2 crystallizes in the monoclinic system, space group P21/n; a = 8.4711(5) Å, b = 27.7876(15) Å, c = 8.5569(5) Å, β = 115.7110(10)°; Z = 4. The coordination polyhedron of osmium is a distorted octahedron; the osmium environment is formed by two cis-arranged bromine atoms and three fac-S-coordinated and one O-coordinated DMSO molecules. The interconversion of complexes in solutions was studied by UV/Vis and 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy. In chloroform and DMSO, complex 2 isomerizes to cis-[OsBr2(dmso-S)4] and (in the light) to 1. The complexes trans-[OsX2(dmso-d6) 4], where X = Cl, Br, were isolated from DMSO-d 6 and characterized by the IR spectra. © 2014 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.