Tetramesityldiiron is an
organoiron compound
Organoiron chemistry is the chemistry of iron compounds containing a carbon-to-iron chemical bond. Organoiron compounds are relevant in organic synthesis as reagents such as iron pentacarbonyl, diiron nonacarbonyl and disodium tetracarbonylferrate. ...
with the formula Fe
2(C
6H
2(CH
3)
3)
4. It is a red, air-sensitive solid that is used as a precursor to other iron complexes. It adopts a
centrosymmetric
In crystallography, a centrosymmetric point group contains an inversion center as one of its symmetry elements. In such a point group, for every point (x, y, z) in the unit cell there is an indistinguishable point (-x, -y, -z). Such point groups ...
structure. The complex is a
Lewis acid
A Lewis acid (named for the American physical chemist Gilbert N. Lewis) is a chemical species that contains an empty orbital which is capable of accepting an electron pair from a Lewis base to form a Lewis adduct. A Lewis base, then, is any sp ...
, forming monomeric
adduct
An adduct (from the Latin ''adductus'', "drawn toward" alternatively, a contraction of "addition product") is a product of a direct addition of two or more distinct molecules, resulting in a single reaction product containing all atoms of all co ...
s, e.g. Fe(C
6H
2(CH
3)
3)
2pyridine
Pyridine is a basic heterocyclic organic compound with the chemical formula . It is structurally related to benzene, with one methine group replaced by a nitrogen atom. It is a highly flammable, weakly alkaline, water-miscible liquid with a d ...
2. The complex is prepared by treating ferrous halides with the
Grignard reagent
A Grignard reagent or Grignard compound is a chemical compound with the general formula , where X is a halogen and R is an organic group, normally an alkyl or aryl. Two typical examples are methylmagnesium chloride and phenylmagnesium bromide ...
formed from
mesityl bromide
Mesityl bromide is an organic compound with the formula (CH3)3C6H2Br. It is a derivative of mesitylene (1,3,5-trimethylbenzene) with one ring H replaced by Br. The compound is a colorless oil. It is a standard electron-rich aryl halide In organic ...
:
[{{cite book , doi=10.1002/9781119477822.ch4, title=Dimesityliron(II) Dimer and Dimesityldipyridineiron(II) (Mes = mesityl = C6H2-2,4,6-Me3) Crowded σ- and π-Bonded Metal Aryl Complexes, series=Inorganic Syntheses, last1=Martinez, first1=Gabriel Espinosa, last2=Killion, first2=Jack A., last3=Jackson, first3=Bailey J., last4=Fout, first4=Alison R., pages=50–55, year=2018, volume=36, s2cid=104749729 ]
:2 FeCl
2 + 4 BrMgC
6H
2(CH
3)
3 → Fe
2(C
6H
2(CH
3)
3)
4 + 2 MgBrCl
References
Organoiron compounds