Ytterbium complexes hydrolysis

Samarium, erbium and ytterbium metal vapor also react with ethene, propene, and 1,2-propadiene at — 196°C. The colored matrices, orange to black, contain up to 80% of the appropriate metal as shown by the infrared absorptions of the coordinated olefinic double bond. The reaction product of erbium metal and propene was characterized by elemental analysis as Er(CH2=CHCH,)3. The predominant volatile products after hydrolysis of the complexes are CH4, C2H, C3Hft/C3Hg and C4Hg/C4H,o for the ethene complexes, CjH /CjHg, H2C=C=CH2, and CH3propene complexes. Since ethene is only a minor reaction product in the hydrolysis of... 

Like the overwhelming majority of cyclopentadienyl REM derivatives, the ionic complexes are very quickly destroyed on air. Their hydrolysis is accompanied by the abstraction of cyclopentadiene [276]. Reduction of [(Me5C5)2YbCl2]K by sodium amalgam in DME or acetonitrile medium leads to neutral complexes of divalent ytterbium (Me5C5)2Yb(B) (B = DME, MeCN) [234]. 

---