The subtle effects of iron-containing metal surfaces on the reductive carbonylation of RuCl3

摘要

The use of iron-containing metal surfaces, Fe, Fe - Cr-alloy and stainless steel, for the synthesis of mixed metal Ru - Fe compounds has been studied. The studied process was reductive carbonylation of RuCl3 in the presence of a metal surface. Reactions were carried out in ethanol solutions under 10 - 50 bar carbon monoxide pressure at 125 degrees C using an autoclave. During the reaction the metal surface was oxidized, releasing iron into the solution and acting as a sacrificial source of iron. Under these conditions the corrosion of the metal surface was facile and produced a series of iron-containing species. In addition to the formation of most obvious iron(II) products, such as [Fe(H2O)(6)](2+) or [FeCl2(H2O)(4)] the use of the metal surface also provided a route to novel labile trinuclear [Ru2Cl2(mu-Cl)(4)(CO)(6)FeL2] (L = H2O, EtOH) complexes. The stability and reactivity of the [Ru2Cl2(mu- Cl)(4)(CO)(6)FeL2] complexes were further studied using computational DFT methods. Based on the computational results a reaction route has been suggested for the formation and decomposition of [Ru2Cl2(mu-Cl)(4)(CO)(6)FeL2].