Acrylic Acid Derivatives of Group 8 Metal Carbonyls: A Structural and Kinetic Study

The synthesis, spectroscopic, and X-ray structural studies of acrylic acid complexes of iron and ruthenium tetracarbonyls are reported. In addition, the deprotonated η2-olefin bound acrylic acid derivative of iron as well as its alkylated species were fully characterized by X-ray crystallography. Kinetic data were determined for the replacement of acrylic acid, acrylate, and methylacrylate for the group 8 metal carbonyls by triphenylphosphine. These processes were found to be first-order in the concentration of metal complex with the rates for dissociative loss of the olefinic ligands from ruthenium being much faster than their iron analogues. However, the ruthenium derivatives afforded formation of primarily mono-phosphine metal tetracarbonyls, whereas the iron complexes led largely to trans-di-phosphine tricarbonyls. This difference in behavior was ascribed to a more stable spin crossover species 3Fe(CO)4 which undergoes rapid CO loss to afford the bis phosphine derivative. The activation enthalpies for...