Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Johnson & Johnson

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Originally published in Science Express on 22 September 2005
Science 4 November 2005:
Vol. 310. no. 5749, pp. 844 - 847
DOI: 10.1126/science.1116789
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Synthesis of a Stable Compound with Fivefold Bonding Between Two Chromium(I) Centers

Tailuan Nguyen,1 Andrew D. Sutton,1 Marcin Brynda,1 James C. Fettinger,1 Gary J. Long,2 Philip P. Power1*

Although in principle transition metals can form bonds with six shared electron pairs, only quadruply bonded compounds can be isolated as stable species at room temperature. Here we show that the reduction of {Cr(µ-Cl)Ar'}2 [where Ar' indicates C6H3-2,6(C6H3-2,6-Pri2)2 and Pr indicates isopropyl] with a slight excess of potassium graphite has produced a stable compound with fivefold chromium-chromium (Cr–Cr) bonding. The very air- and moisture-sensitive dark red crystals of Ar'CrCrAr' were isolated with greater than 40% yield. X-ray diffraction revealed a Cr–Cr bond length of 1.8351(4) angstroms (where the number in parentheses indicates the standard deviation) and a planar transbent core geometry. These data, the structure's temperature-independent paramagnetism, and computational studies support the sharing of five electron pairs in five bonding molecular orbitals between two 3d5 chromium(I) ions.

1 Department of Chemistry, One Shields Avenue, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
2 Department of Chemistry, University of Missouri-Rolla, Rolla, MO 65409–0010, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: pppower{at}ucdavis.edu

Read the Full Text

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)