Polymetallic Silyl-Iron and -Ruthenium Compounds

Abstract

The synthesis of iron and ruthenium compounds which contain either end-capped silyl units Fe-Si-Si-Fe or the linear sequence Si-Ru-Ru-Si respectively were explored. (I) (II) (III)

End-capped iron species, e.g. I, were prepared using literature methods and two new related iron containing silyl species II and III were synthesised. These were prepared as model compounds for comparison with polymeric analogues.

(IV) (V)

Ruthenium silyl species of the type IV that maintain metal - metal bonding have been prepared. As an extension to this work inorganic polymeric species such as V were synthesised using the same preparation techniques.

The polymeric compounds were difficult to characterise as they were unable to be chromatographed or crystallised therefore, all data was from crude mixtures. Spectroscopic techniques involved FT - IR, ESMS, LDI-TOF and NMR spectroscopy. ESMS was an ineffective technique for the polymeric compounds however, LDI-TOF mass spectrometry gave broad curves with an average molecular weight ranging from 60,000 to 200,000 for different preparations.

Flexible siloxanes such as HSiMe2OSiMe2OSiMe2H gave molecular cluster derivatives with bridging ligands rather than polymers.