Chemistry of coordinatively unsaturated and electron deficient carbonyl metallate ions. Gas phase reactions of [Fe(CO) 2] − [rad] with hydrocarbons

Abstract

A study has been carried out of the gas phase reactions of the radical anion [Fe(CO) 2] − with twenty-one C 2-C 8 hydrocarbons, including acyclic, cyclic and isomeric alkenes, dienes, alkynes, and aromatics. Dehydrogenation and decarbonylation processes have been identified in the principal reaction channels, which were dependent on the hydrocarbon structure, while sequential ligand substitutions were observed for the reaction of C 2H 2 with [Fe(CO) 2] − to give the terminal product ion [(C 2H 2) 2·Fe] − .