Carbonyl clusters, transition

There are only a few weU-documented examples of catalysis by metal clusters, and not many are to be expected as most metal clusters are fragile and fragment to give metal complexes or aggregate to give metal under reaction conditions (39). However, the metal carbonyl clusters are conceptually important because they form a bridge between catalysts commonly used in solution, ie, transition-metal complexes with single metal atoms, and catalysts commonly used on surfaces, ie, small metal particles or clusters. 

Application of small metal particles has attracted the attention of the scientists for a long time. As early as in the seventies Turkevich already prepared mono-dispersed gold particles [19], and later, using molecular transition metal carbonyl clusters [20], the importance of small nanoparticles increased considerably. One of the crucial points is whether turnover frequency measured for a given catalytic reaction increases or decreases as the particle size is diminished. 

The idea (50, 5/) of dual coordination of CO implies the presence of two coordination centers in a Fischer-Tropsch catalyst system, i.e., a carbonyl carbon coordinating center, Ma, and a carbonyl oxygen coordinating center, M6 (14). It is this concept which has led at least two groups to examine transition metal carbonyl cluster compounds as homogeneous Fischer-Tropsch catalysts. 

Transition metal compounds in various form such as metal carbonyls 0), carbonyl clusters (2), Pt(II) chloride/tin chloride (3) PtLn (L=PR3) (4), etc. have been proposed as homogeneous catalysts for the water gas shift (wgs) reaction (eq. 1). Some of them are reportedly active at relatively low temperature (<150°)... 

Johnson, B. F. G., Stereochemistry of Transition Metal Carbonyl Clusters, 12, 253. 

Even though qualitative bonding descriptions of metal atom clusters up to six or seven atoms can be derived and in some cases correlated with structural detail, it is clear that most structures observed for higher clusters cannot be treated thus. Nor do the structures observed correlate with those observed for borane derivatives with the same number of vertices. Much of borane chemistry is dominated by the tendency to form structures derived from the icosahedron found in elemental boron. However, elemental transition metals possess either a close-packed or body-centered cubic arrangement. In this connection, one can find the vast majority of metal polyhedra in carbonyl cluster compounds within close-packed geometries, particularly hexagonal close-packing. 

For a given value of m, the stability of binary carbonyl clusters will decrease in passing from the bottom right (Pt) to the upper left (V) of the transition block. 

Just as for group 5, 6, and 7 ( -CsF MCU species, Fehlner has shown that BH3-THF or Li[BH4] react with group 8 and 9 cyclopentadienyl metal halides to result in metallaborane clusters, many of them having a metal boron ratio of 1 3 and 1 4, and much of the synthetic chemistry and reactivity shows close connections with the earlier transition metals. The main difference between the early and later transition metallaboranes that result is that the latter are generally electron precise cluster species, while as has been shown, the former often adopt condensed structures. Indeed, as has been pointed out by King, many of the later transition metallaborane clusters that result from these syntheses have structures closely related to binary boranes and, in some cases, metal carbonyl clusters such as H2Os6(CO)18.159... 

That transition metal-carbonyl clusters, which contain an apparent abundance of electrons, might have much in common with boranes and carboranes, notorious for their deficiency of electrons, appears at first sight improbable. However, the structural and bonding relationship between them becomes apparent if one considers certain metal-carbonyl clusters for which localized bond treatments are unsatisfactory. 

A second feature of metal halide cluster chemistry is that the early transition metals are more prone to form metal -metal bonds than are the later noble metals and coinage metals. Again the polynuclear metal carbonyls differ in this facet of metal-metal bond behavior, and, in fact, metal carbonyl clusters become more common on going from the left to the right of the Periodic Table. 

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