Organolanthanide chemistry is the field of

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

that studies compounds with a

lanthanide The lanthanide () or lanthanoid () series of chemical elements comprises the 15 metallic chemical elements with atomic numbers 57–71, from lanthanum through lutetium. These elements, along with the chemically similar elements scandium and yttr ...

-to- carbon bond. Organolanthanide compounds are different from their organotransition metal analogues in the following ways: *They are far more air- and water-sensitive and are often pyrophoric. *Chemistry in the 0 oxidation state is far more limited. In fact, their electropositive nature makes their organometallic compounds more likely to be ionic. *They form no stable carbonyls at room temperature; organolanthanide carbonyl compounds have been observed only in argon matrices, and decompose when heated to 40 K.

σ-Bonded complexes

Metal-carbon σ bonds are found in alkyls of the lanthanide elements such as nMe₆sup>3− and Ln H(SiMe₃)₂sub>3. Methyllithium dissolved in

THF Tetrahydrofuran (THF), or oxolane, is an organic compound with the formula (CH2)4O. The compound is classified as heterocyclic compound, specifically a cyclic ether. It is a colorless, water-miscible organic liquid with low viscosity. It is ma ...

reacts in stoichiometric ratio with LnCl₃ (Ln = Y, La) to yield Ln(CH₃)₃ probably contaminated with LiCl. If a chelating agent (L-L), such as tetramethylethylenediamine (tmed or tmeda) or

1,2-dimethoxyethane Dimethoxyethane, also known as glyme, monoglyme, dimethyl glycol, ethylene glycol dimethyl ether, dimethyl cellosolve, and DME, is a colorless, aprotic, and liquid ether that is used as a solvent, especially in batteries. Dimethoxyethane is misc ...

(dme) is mixed with MCl₃ and CH₃Li in THF, this forms i(tmed)sub>3 (CH₃)₆and i(dme)sub>3 (CH₃)₆ Certain powdered lanthanides react with

diphenylmercury Diphenylmercury is the organomercury compound with the formula Hg(C6H5)2. It is a white solid. The compound is of historic interest as a particularly stable organometallic compound but it finds few uses because of its high toxicity. Preparation C ...

in THF to yield octahedral complexes: ::2 Ln + 3 Ph₂Hg + 6 THF → 2 LnPh₃(THF)₃ + Hg (Ln = Ho, Er, Tm, Lu).

π-Bonded complexes

Cyclopentadienyl complex A cyclopentadienyl complex is a coordination complex of a metal and cyclopentadienyl groups (, abbreviated as Cp−). Cyclopentadienyl ligands almost invariably bind to metals as a pentahapto (''η''5-) bonding mode. The metal–cyclopentadien ...

es, including several

lanthanocene A lanthanocene is a type of metallocene compound that contains an Chemical element, element from the lanthanide series. The most common lanthanocene complexes contain two Sodium cyclopentadienide, cyclopentadienyl anions and an Covalent bond classi ...

s, are known for all lanthanides. All, barring tris(cyclopentadienyl)promethium(III) (Pm(Cp)₃), can be produced by the following reaction scheme: :3 Na p+ MCl₃ → M psub>3 + 3 NaCl Pm(Cp)₃ can be produced by the following reaction: :2 PmCl₃ + 3 Be psub>2 → 3 BeCl₂ + 2 Pm psub>3 These compounds are of limited use and academic interest.

References

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