Photochemical studies of ((eta/sup 5/-C/sub 5/R/sub 5/)M(eta/sup 6/-COT))PF/sub 6/ and ((eta/sup 5/-C/sub 5/R/sub 5/)M(eta/sup 4/-1,5-COT)L)PF/sub 6/ complexes of iron and ruthenium

The photochemistry of a series of complexes of the form ((eta/sup 5/-C/sub 5/R/sub 5/)M(eta/sup 6/-COT))PF/sub 6/ and ((eta/sup 5/-C/sub 5/H/sub 5/)M(eta/sup 4/-COT)L)PF/sub 6/ (R = H, CH/sub 3/; M = Fe, Ru; COT = cyclooctatetraene; L = CO, P(OCH/sub 3/)/sub 3/) is examined to determined the potential for stepwise COT release through coordinatively unsaturated eta/sup 2/ and eta /sup 4/ intermediates. The cyclooctatetraene complexes were chosen because of the documented ability of COT to coordinate in both eta/sup 6/ and eta/sup 4/ configurations.