A new process using radiation for synthesising molecular metal clusters and complexes: First results concerning iron, ruthenium and osmium compounds

Abstract

The radiolytic reduction of metal ions in alcohols has been achieved under CO atmosphere. Under such conditions, metal reduction, ligation and aggregation processes compete, leading to metal complexes and molecular clusters. These compounds are interesting for catalytic purposes. We report here the radiolytic synthesis of Fe(CO) 5, Fe 3(CO) 12, [Ru(CO) 3Cl 2] 2, Ru 3(CO) 12, H 2Ru 6(CO) 18 and [Os(CO) 3Cl 2] 2 and of some intermetallic compounds. These syntheses are carried out under very mild temperature and pressure conditions (i.e. room temperature and at most 1 atm of CO). It is shown that increasing the concentration of initial metal ions or decreasing the partial pressure of CO favors aggregation against ligation.