MONONUCLEAR, DINUCLEAR, AND TRINUCLEAR COMPLEXES OF IRON(II) WITH N,N,N',N'-TETRAMETHYLETHYLENEDIAMINE

Iron(II) chloride reacted with N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine (t men) in tetrahydrofuran (thf) to give the mononuclear complex trans-[F eCl2(tmen)(2)] 1 and the dinuclear complex [{FeCl(tmen)(2)}(2)(mu-Cl)( 2)] 2. Both adducts were characterised by microanalyses, magnetic meas urements, Mossbauer spectroscopy, and crystal structure analysis. In s olution in thf the two species are in an equilibrium affected by tempe rature and by concentration of tmen. Reaction of either 1 or 2 with Na [BPh4] produced the trinuclear species [Fe-3(mu-Cl)(3)(mu(3)-Cl)(2)(tm en)(3)][BPh4] 3. This compound is paramagnetic both in the solid state and in solution. These iron complexes are very similar in structure t o the corresponding vanadium complexes.