This article describes recent developments in chemical study on a series of butterfly-shaped μ-CO-containing Fe/E (E = S, Se, Te) cluster salts. These salts include eleven novel cluster anions, which are the single butterfly one μ-CO-containing [(μ-RE)(μ-CO)Fe2(CO)6]- (A), the double butterfly two μ-CO-containing {[(μ-CO)Fe2(CO)6]2(μ-EZE-μ)}2- (B, E = S; C, E = Se), the triple butterfly three μ-CO- containing {[(μ-CO)Fe2(CO)6]3[(μ-SCH2CH2)3N]}3- (D), {[(μ-CO)Fe2(CO)6]3[1,3,5-(μ-SCH2)3C6H3]}3- (E), {[(μ- CO)Fe2(CO)6]3[(μ-SCH2)3CMe]}3- (F), the double butterfly one μ-CO-containing {[(μ-CO)Fe2(CO)6] [Fe2(CO)6][(μ-SCH2)3CMe]} - (G) derived in situ from F, the quadruple butterfly four μ-CO-containing {[(μ- CO)Fe2(CO)6]4[1,2,4,5-(μ-SCH2)4C6H2]}4- (H), the triple butterfly two μ-CO-containing {[(μ-CO)Fe2(CO)6]2 [Fe2(CO)6][1,2,4,5-(μ-SCH2)4C6H2]}2- (I) derived in situ from H, the quadruple butterfly four μ-CO-con- taining {[(μ-CO)Fe2(CO)6]4[(μ-SCH2)4C]}4- (J), and the triple butterfly two μ-CO-containing {[(μ-CO)Fe2 (CO)6]2[Fe2(CO)6][(μ-SCH2)4C]}2- (K) derived in situ from J. This article describes not only the synthetic methods for formation of such anionic cluster (A-K) salts, but also their novel reactions leading to various new types of butterfly Fe/E cluster complexes. All these findings described in this article are important both theoretically and practically.
SONG LiCheng Department of Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
