Iridium salts, ammino-derivatives

Ammonia unites readily with iridium salts, giving rise to complex ammino-derivatives. The first compounds described appear to be ammines analogous to those of palladium and platinum, to which they were compared by Berzelius 8 and Skoblikoff.4 A further series were described by Claus 5 wliich he represented like those of ammino-rhodium salts, as they bore a marked resemblance to these. After Jorgensen had established the constitution of the ammines of rhodium, cobalt, and chromium salts, Palmaer gave similar constitution to the iridium compounds. 

Two series of complex iridium salts corresponding to the hexammino-and diacido-iridium salts have been prepared containing ethylene-diamine. These have the same general characteristics as the ammino-salts. Both series have been resolved into optically active isomers, the dinitrito-series by means of d- and 1-bromo-camphor sulphonic acid, and the triethylenediamino-series by d- and 1-nitro-camphor. Attempts have been made to prepare etliylenediamino-derivatives containing tetravalent iridium. Thus, sodium hexaehloro-iridate, [IrCl6]Na2, reacts with ethylenediamine, but the products are syrupy and cannot be purified. Derivatives of trivalent iridium, however, have been prepared. These are crystalline and fairly easily purified. The... 

Ammino-derivatives of Osmium Compounds—Ammino-derivatives of Iridium Salts—Derivatives of Iridous, Iridic, and Iridium Sesqui-salts. 

The more important simple derivatives of cobalt are divalent, the metal only yielding stable trivalent salts in conjunction with other metallic derivatives, as, for example, the cobalti-nitrites and eobalii-cyanides, or in the complex ammino derivatives. Rhodium and iridium function almost exclusively as trivalent metals in their salts. 

Cobalt, rhodium, and iridium are also characterised by their power of yielding complex ammino derivatives, and in this manner resemble palladium and platinum. These derivatives are a remarkable series of substances entirely distinct in most of their properties from the more usual inorganic salts of the metals in question, and are dealt with separately in Volume X of this Series. 

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