Inorganic and Organometallic Photochemistry
Coordination complexes and organometallic compounds are also photoreactive. These reactions can entail cis-trans isomerization. More commonly photoreactions result in dissociation of ligands, since the photon excites an electron on the metal to an orbital that is antibonding with respect to the ligands. Thus, metal carbonyls that resist thermal substitution undergo decarbonylation upon irradiation with UV light. UV-irradiation of a THF solution of molybdenum hexacarbonyl gives the THF complex, which is synthetically useful:
- Mo(CO)6 + THF → Mo(CO)5(THF) + CO
In a related reaction, photolysis of iron pentacarbonyl affords diiron nonacarbonyl (see figure):
- 2 Fe(CO)5 → Fe2(CO)9 + CO
Read more about this topic: Photochemistry
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