Metal carbonyl carbide clusters

The variety of transition-metal carbonyl carbide clusters is mirrored in the large number of solid-state carbide compounds known. A difference is that the C atom in solid-state systems is nearly always six coordinate whereas the cluster systems can... 

The metal-carbon cluster systems we have considered so far in the present chapter, like the carboranes considered in the previous chapter, have contained one or more skeletal carbon atoms occupying vertex sites on the cluster deltahedron or deltahedral fragment. We now turn to some molecular cluster systems in which hypercoordinated carbon atoms occupy core sites in the middle of metal polyhedra. Most are metal carbonyl carbide clusters of typical formulae Mj (CO)yC. Their carbide carbon atoms are incorporated within polyhedra, which in turn are surrounded by y carbonyl ligands. Such compounds, for which few controlled syntheses are available, have been found primarily among the products of thermal decomposition of polynuclear metal carbonyls Mj (CO)j, their carbide carbon atoms result from disproportionation reactions of carbonyl ligands (2 CO CO2 + C). 

TABLE 4.2. Formulas and Hypercarbon Environments of Some Representative Metal Carbonyl Carbide Clusters... 

Because the enthalpies of formation of such molecular metal carbonyl carbide clusters have yet to be measured or calculated accurately, it has not been possible to calculate their metal-carbon bond enthalpies. However, enough thermochemical information is available on some bulk metal carbides to allow the strengths of both their metal-metal and metal-carbon bonds to be assessed, as indicated in the next section. 

Metal carbonyl carbide cluster compounds may be formed either by the carbon-oxygen bond breaking of the CO molecule or by the decomposition of an organic compound present in the reaction mixture. Chloroform is a convenient source of the encapsulated carbon atom because in this case the synthesis may be carried out under mild conditions ... 

We have shown that A) interstitial hydride formation is observed only with partial occupation of the available holes, B) occupation of the interstitial position in isolated polyhedra is not observed, and C) occupation of all the holes in a close-packed lattice cancels metal-metal interactions. Therefore, it seems that interstitial hydrogen can be tolerated only in a fraction of the total number of holes, and with the weakening of metal-metal interactions. This behavior indicates strong competition between metal-metal and metal-hydrogen bonds, which is unique for hydrogen because interstitial carbon can stabilize some unusual arrangements in carbonyl carbide clusters (29, 30). 

If the square pyramidal metal carbonyl carbides Fe5(CO)i5C ° and Os5(CO)i5C are treated in a similar manner to I xyi ( ()) i T that is, as clusters in which all four of the core carbon atom s valence shell electrons are used for skeletal bonding, then they are seen to have the expected nido shapes of systems with five skeletal atoms (the metal atoms) held together by seven skeletal bond pairs. By contrast, if these carbide carbon atoms had occupied polyhedral vertex sites, with a lone pair of electrons in an exo-oriented sp hybrid orbital, then the number of skeletal bond pairs would have been reduced by one and the number of skeletal atoms would have increased by one. The five metal atoms and the carbide carbon atom would have had to be accommodated in some way on a trigonal bipyramidal skeleton. Clearly, the assumption that all four valence shell electrons from the carbide carbon atom are involved in the skeletal bonding is vindicated. 

In contrast to [Fe4H2(CO)i3], the analogous hydrides of ruthenium or osmium are stable. Besides tri- and tetranuclear clusters, also known are clusters containing five or six iron or ruthenium atoms and from five to eight osmium atoms as well as carbonyl carbide clusters in which metal atoms are bonded to the carbon atom (Figure 2.22) [Fe5(CO)i5C], [Fcs CO),CV-, [Ru5(CO)i5C],... 

Cluster Compounds of Co, Rh, and Ir. In addition to the above-mentioned neutral cluster compounds, there is a large number of anionic carbonyl clusters and metal carbonyl carbides. Carbonyl carbides are formed when the interstice inside the metal cluster is sufficiently large to accommodate the carbon atom. Carbonyl carbides possessing at least four metal atoms are known. The most thoroughly investigated carbides are those of rhodium because they are very stable and resist air oxidation. Carbonyl clusters of group 9 elements containing even more than 20 metal atoms are now known [M6(CO)i5] - (M = Co, Rh, Ir), lM CO)uT. [M6(CO)i5C]"-(M = Co,Rh), [Co8(CO),sC] -, [Rh,(CO)i,] -, [Rh8(CO)i,C], [Ir8(CO)22]"-,... 

The relationship between boranes and metal-carbonyl clusters can be extended by considering the compound Fe5(CO)i5C, which has the square-based pyramidal structure shown in Fig. 13, with the carbide carbon atom just below the center of the Fe square, clearly contributing all its valence shell electrons to the cluster 24). The metal-carbonyl residue FeB(CO)i4 formally left by removal of this carbon as has the nido structure appropriate for a cluster with 5 skeletal atoms and seven skeletal bond pairs. 

Experimental Values of the Carbide Carbon Radius in High Nuclearity Metal Carbonyl Clusters... 

The carbide-centered polynuclear transition-metal carbonyl clusters exhibit a rich variety of structures. A common feature to this class of carbide complexes is that the naked carbon is wholly or partially enclosed in a metal cage composed of homo/hetero metal atoms, and there is also a subclass that can be considered as tetra-metal-substituted methanes. The earliest known compound of this kind is FesC(CO)i5, in which the carbon atom is located at the center... 

Although less fully documented than osmium cluster chemistry, rhenium cluster chemistry has been subjected to many structural studies, including those on approximately 20 neutral or anionic carbonyls, particularly carbonyl hydrides [Rev(CO). H ] of nuclearities x = 2 to 6 (Fig. 7). In addition, some ten or more rhenium carbonyl carbides [Rev(CO)vH C] have been shown to contain a core carbon atom, usually occupying a central octahedral site. These systems offer scope not only to explore for rhenium the trends we have already shown for osmium, but also to study the effect on metal-metal distances (and so enthalpies) of such core carbon atoms, which formally donate all four of their valence shell electrons to the cluster bonding. To our knowledge only one rhenium carbonyl cluster compound, Re2(CO)io, has been subjected to calorimetric study to determine its enthalpy of formation. ... 

These observations on the structurally simple carbides of the early transition metals show how the strength of binding of core carbon atoms in molecular metal carbonyl clusters can in principle be estimated by comparison with metal carbides for which structural and theoretical data are available, and leads us to hope that examination of the wider body of transition metal carbides will provide relationships between the length and strength of bonds between metal atoms and octahe-drally coordinated carbon atoms that can be applied to specific molecular metal carbonyl clusters containing core carbon atoms. 

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