Complexes of manganese, iron and cobalt with sterically demanding indenyl ligands

A series of manganese, iron and cobalt complexes bearing sterically demanding 1,3-disubstituted indenyl ligands, 1,3-(Me3C)(2)C9H5 (Ind(tBu)) (1) and 1,3-(C6H11)(2)C9H5 (Ind(cHexyl)) (2), has been prepared. These complexes have been fully characterised by various spectroscopic techniques, elemental analysis, and X-ray diffraction experiments. In addition the electronic and steric properties of these ligands have been evaluated. Although the cone angles and electronic properties are similar to 1,2,4-(Me3C)(3)C5H2 (Cp'), indenyl iron half-sandwich complexes are only stable at low temperature. This has been demonstrated for 1-FeI using suitable trapping experiments such as CO or NaCp' addition to yield 1-Fe(CO)(2)I and 1-FeCp', respectively. Overall the metal-ligand bonds in these indenyl compounds are weaker than in the corresponding cyclopentadienyl derivatives. In addition, the bis(indenyl) manganese complexes, 1-Mn and 2-Mn, are high-spin, as established by solid state magnetic susceptibility studies in the temperature range 2-300 K.