The Organometallic Chemistry of the Transition Metals (Crabtree/The Organometallic Chemistry) || Physical Methods in Organometallic Chemistry

✍ Scribed by Crabtree, Robert H.

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
• Year: 2005
• Weight: 264 KB
• Edition: 4
• Category: Article
• ISBN: 0471662569
• DOI: 10.1002/0471718769.ch10

✦ Synopsis

We now look at some of the main methods of identifying a new complex, assigning its stereochemistry, and learning something about its properties. We will look at some applications of the most commonly used spectroscopic and crystallographic methods to organometallic chemistry. Citations to both introductory and more advanced treatments of the methods themselves are also included.

10.1 ISOLATION

Before we can study the complexes, we have to isolate them in a pure form. The methods used resemble those of organic chemistry. Most organometallic complexes are involatile crystalline materials, although some are liquids [e.g., CH 3 C 5 H 4 Mn(CO) 3 ], or even vapors [e.g., Ni(CO) 4 ] at room temperature and pressure. They normally have solubilities similar to those of organic compounds. The main difference from organic chemistry is that many organometallic compounds are "air sensitive," which usually means that they react with O 2 and sometimes with water. The electropositive f -block, and early d-block metals are the most reactive. Crystalline material is usually more stable than are solutions, but in many cases both must be kept under dry N 2 or Ar, and air and water must * Undergraduates taking this course may not have had a physical chemistry course. The material on spectroscopy has therefore been gathered together here, so that instructors have the option of omitting all or part of it without losing the narrative flow of the rest of the book.