Transition metal carbonyls bond dissociation

The development of comprehensive models for transition metal carbonyl photochemistry requires that three types of data be obtained. First, information on the dynamics of the photochemical event is needed. Which reactant electronic states are involved What is the role of radiationless transitions Second, what are the primary photoproducts Are they stable with respect to unimolecular decay Can the unsaturated species produced by photolysis be spectroscopically characterized in the absence of solvent Finally, we require thermochemical and kinetic data i.e. metal-ligand bond dissociation energies and association rate constants. We describe below how such data is being obtained in our laboratory. 

Lewis et al,16 DH° 40 Kcal/mole, but is nevertheless consistent with trends found in other transition metal carbonyls, i.e. first bond dissociation energies are typically greater than second bond dissociation energies. See Table I. Note that the DH° for... 

Table L Bond Dissociation Energies for Transition Metal Carbonyls...

Pensak and McKinney (28) [PM], using this method, have recently reported a systematic study of first-row transition metal carbonyl complexes for which experimental bond distances and angles were reliably reproduced, along with key bond dissociation energies. 

The highly covalent nature of transition metal carbonyls and their derivatives leads to the 18-electron rule being closely followed. The mononuclear species Ni(CO)4, Fe(CO)5, Ru(CO)5, Os(CO)5, Cr(CO)6, Mo(CO)6 and W(CO)6 obey this well and, if the formalized rules of electron counting are applied, so do the metal—metal bonded and carbonyl bridged species. Such compounds are therefore coordinately saturated and the normal (but by no means unique) mode of substitution is dissociative (a 16-electron valence shell being less difficult to achieve than one with 20 electrons).94... 

Photochemistry of transition metal carbonyl complexes as the borderline between organic and inorganic chemistry is mentioned in Section 6.3.9. Since the dissociation energy of a common metal carbonyl oxide bond is usually low, photodecarbonylation, that is, release of the CO molecule, is the most common photoprocess observed (entry 8). 

Energy-minimized conformations from molecular mechanics are useful to estimate the energetics of metal-ligand bond dissociation. A plausible thermal dissociation reaction for generic zero-valent metal carbonyl complexes that corresponds to the onset of the glass transition is... 

Our group has studied another class of transition metal carbonyl complexes, namely, the positive ions M(CO)+ (M = Cu, Ag, Au n = l-4).ii Table 11 shows the optimized M+—CO bond lengths at the HF/II and MP2/II levels of theory. The calculated and experimental M+—CO first dissociation energies of the carbonyl ligand are also shown. The experimental values have been taken from the recent compilation of observed Dq(0 K) values by Armentrout using... 

Besides dissociation of ligands, photoexcitation of transition metal complexes can facilitate (1) - oxidative addition to metal atoms of C-C, C-H, H-H, C-Hal, H-Si, C-0 and C-P moieties (2) - reductive elimination reactions, forming C-C, C-H, H-H, C-Hal, Hal-Hal and H-Hal moieties (3) - various rearrangements of atoms and chemical bonds in the coordination sphere of metal atoms, such as migratory insertion to C=C bonds, carbonyl and carbenes, ot- and P-elimination, a- and P-cleavage of C-C bonds, coupling of various moieties and bonds, isomerizations, etc. (see [11, 12] and refs, therein). 

Transition metal catalysts, specifically those composed of iron nanoparticles, are widely employed in industrial chemical production and pollution abatement applications [67], Iron also plays a cracial role in many important biological processes. Iron oxides are economical alternatives to more costly catalysts and show activity for the oxidation of methane [68], conversion of carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide [58], and the transformation of various hydrocarbons [69,70]. In addition, iron oxides have good catalytic lifetimes and are resistant to high concentrations of moisture and CO which often poison other catalysts [71]. Li et al. have observed that nanosized iron oxides are highly active for CO oxidation at low tanperatures [58]. Iron is unique and more active than other catalyst and support materials because it is easily reduced and provides a large number of potential active sites because of its highly disordered and defect rich structure [72, 73]. Previous gas-phase smdies of cationic iron clusters have included determination of the thermochemistry and bond energies of iron cluster oxides and iron carbonyl complexes by Armentrout and co-workers [74, 75], and a classification of the dissociation patterns of small iron oxide cluster cations by Schwarz et al. [76]. 

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