Iron guanidinate complexes and formation of a novel dinuclear iron(II) species with a dianionic mu-eta(2):eta(2) (biguanidinate) ligand

Reaction of the lithium salt of N,N',N "-triisopropylguanidinate with Fe(II I) or Fe(II) halides led to isolation of the new species [((PrN)-N-i)(2)C(H NPri)](2)FeCl (1) and [mu-eta(2)-((PrN)-N-i)(2)C(HNPri)](2){Fe[eta(2)-((PrN )-N-i)(2)C(HNPri)]}(2) (2); attempted alkylation of 1 with 1 equiv. of a va riety of reagents produced 2; the reaction of 2 with LiCH2SiMe3 resulted in a coupling reaction between the two bridging ligands to yield [(mu-eta(2) : eta(2)-((PrN)-N-i)(2)C)(2)NPri)]{Fe[eta(2)-(PrNi)(2)C(HNPri)]}(2).