Behaviour of trimetallic iron, ruthenium and osmium clusters in reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

Abstract

The reversed-phase chromatographic behaviour of some trinuclear carbonyl clusters of iron, ruthenium and osmium, having the same basic triangular ensemble of the parent M 3(CO) 12, is reported. On a LiChrosorb RP-18 column, compounds having similar structures and different substituents were separated by using acetonitrile or acetonitrile/methanol mixtures as mobile phases. The elution order appears to be related to the nature of the substituents and, in the case of clusters of different metals, to the electronegativity of the metal.