Binding of ferrocene by cyclic trimeric perfluoro-<Emphasis Type="Italic">o</Emphasis>-phenylenemercury. Synthesis and structure of the first double-decker sandwich complex of a sandwich

The first double-decker sandwich complex of a sandwich was synthesized and fully characterized. The complex was prepared by the reaction of cyclic trimeric perfluoro-o-phenylene-mercury (o-C₆F₄Hg)₃ (1) with ferrocene in an ethereal solution at 20 °C and has the composition {(o-C₆F₄Hg)₃]₂(Cp₂Fe)} (2). The ferrocene sandwich in 2 is located between the planes of two mercury-containing macrocycles and is coordinated to each of them through donation of the -electrons of the ⁵-Cp ligands to vacant orbitals of the mercury atoms of the adjacent molecule 1. It was concluded that all carbon atoms of the ⁵-Cp rings in complex 2 are involved in the bonding to the macrocycles. Complexation with 1 leads to considerable shifts of the (C-H) and (C-H) bands of ferrocene in the IR spectrum to high frequencies. The structure of complex 2 was determined by X-ray diffraction.__________Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 12, pp. 2754–2756, December, 2004.