Osmium carbonyl clusters carbides

The formation of carbido-carbonyl cluster compounds with ruthenium and osmium appears to be common in pyrolysis reactions the basic reaction may be viewed as the transformation of the coordinated carbon monoxide to carbide and carbon dioxide. Small variations in... 

The data in Table 4.3 correspond to a radius for the octahedrally coordinated carbon atom that Ues in the range 0.59-0.69 A. We noted earlier that the radius of the core carbon in osmium, rhenium, and rhodium clusters lie in the range 0.59-0.62 A. It appears likely that the enthalpy change ZE(M-C), needed to cleave the six M-C bonds in these molecular carbonyl clusters, will lie in the same range (239-306 kcal moT i.e., 38-51 kcal mol per MC link) that we have now calculated for the similarly coordinated carbon atoms in these extended lattice binary carbides MC or M2C. 

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. ... 

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],... 

---