CO ligand

Polynuclear Carbonyls. Several stmctures consist of dinuclear metal carbonyls as shown in stmctures (4)—(6). The metal atoms in Mn2(CO) Q, as also for technetium and rhenium, are held together by a metal—metal bond and the compound contains 10 terminal CO ligands, five coordinated to each atom. The CO ligands of Mn2(00) 0 adopt a staggered configuration as illustrated in stmcture... 

State is similar to that of Fe2(CO)g, with one less bridging CO ligand. 

For trinuclear cluster complexes, open (chain) or closed (cycHc) stmctures are possible. Which cluster depends for the most part on the number of valence electrons, 50 in the former and 48 in the latter. The 48-valence electron complex Os2(CO)22 is observed in the cycHc stmcture (7). The molecule possesses a triangular arrangement of osmium atoms with four terminal CO ligands coordinated in a i j -octahedral array about each osmium atom. The molecule Ru (00) 2 is also cycHc and is isomorphous with the osmium analogue. 

The catalytic cycle (Fig. 5) (20) is well estabUshed, although the details of the conversion of the intermediate CH COI and methanol into the product are not well understood the mechanism is not shown for this part of the cycle, but it probably involves rhodium in a catalytic role. The CH I works as a cocatalyst or promoter because it undergoes an oxidative addition with [Rh(CO)2l2]% and the resulting product has the CO ligand bonded cis to the CH ligand these two ligands are then poised for an insertion reaction. 

A number of transition-metal complexes of RNSO ligands have been structurally characterized. Three bonding modes, r(A,5), o-(5)-trigonal and o (5 )-pyramidal, have been observed (Scheme 9.1). Side-on (N,S) coordination is favoured by electron-rich (et or j °) metal centers, while the ff(S)-trigonal mode is preferred for less electron-rich metal centres (or those with competitive strong r-acid co-ligands). As expected ti (N,S)... 

Many complexes have more than one coordination mode of BH4 featured in their structure, e.g. [U ()9 -BH4)()9 -BH4)2(dmpe)2]. Likewise, whereas [M(BH4)4] are monomeric 12-coordinate complexes for M = Zr, Hf, Np, Pu, they are polymeric for M = Th, Pa, U the coordination number rises to 14 and each metal centre is coordinated by two r) -BH4 and four bridging r) -BH4 groups. It is clear that among the factors which determine the mode adopted are the size of the metal atom and the steric requirements of the co-ligands. Many of the complexes... 

The structures are shown in Fig. 26.8c and d and differ in that, whereas the Ir compound consists of a tetrahedron of metal atoms held together solely by M-M bonds, the Rh and Co compounds each incorporate 3 bridging carbonyls. A similar difference was noted in the case of the trinuclear carbonyls of Fe, Ru and Os (p. 1104) and can be explained in a similar way. The M4 tetrahedra of Co and Rh are small enough to be accommodated in an icosahedral array of CO ligands whereas the larger Ir4 tetrahedron forces the adoption of the less dense cube octahedral array of ligands. 

Lewandos and Pettit (47) observed that W(CO)6, Mo(CO)6, and toluene-W (CO) 3 show activity towards metathesis without the presence of a cocatalyst. From data obtained in a careful experimental study of the metathesis of 4-nonene with toluene-W(CO)3, they inferred that this complex loses the toluene ligand as well as a CO-ligand, giving a reacting complex with the following structure ... 

The initiating step of the photolysis reaction is the removal of a CO ligand from the metal with generation of a reactive 16e species. The intermediate metal complex is stabilized by an intramolecular oxidative addition of the Si—H bond to the iron center. 

Asymmetric versions of the cyclopropanation reaction of electron-deficient olefins using chirally modified Fischer carbene complexes, prepared by exchange of CO ligands with chiral bisphosphites [21a] or phosphines [21b], have been tested. However, the asymmetric inductions are rather modest [21a] or not quantified (only the observation that the cyclopropane is optically active is reported) [21b]. Much better facial selectivities are reached in the cyclopropanation of enantiopure alkenyl oxazolines with aryl- or alkyl-substituted alkoxy-carbene complexes of chromium [22] (Scheme 5). 

The lobes of electron density outside the C-O vector thus offer cr-donor lone-pair character. Surprisingly, carbon monoxide does not form particularly stable complexes with BF3 or with main group metals such as potassium or magnesium. Yet transition-metal complexes with carbon monoxide are known by the thousand. In all cases, the CO ligands are bound to the metal through the carbon atom and the complexes are called carbonyls. Furthermore, the metals occur most usually in low formal oxidation states. Dewar, Chatt and Duncanson have described a bonding scheme for the metal - CO interaction that successfully accounts for the formation and properties of these transition-metal carbonyls. 

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