Transition Metals as Building Blocks in Metal-Metal Bonds

In a paper recently published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, researchers report a series of metal-metal bonds involving chromium and another first-row transition metal. By systematically varying the identity of the other metal (from manganese to nickel), the metal-metal bond order was varied from single to formally quintuple. Several of these metal-metal combinations are the first, isolable multiple bonds of their type. Theoretical calculations revealed that the metal-metal bond became increasing polarized across the period from manganese to nickel, giving rise to the large variation in metal-metal bond order.

The work was a joint collaboration between the group of Professor Lu and Laura Gagliardi.

Team Synthesis: Laura Clouston, Randy Siedschlag, Alex Rudd, Adam Miller (NSF-LANDO), and Professor Connie Lu

Team Theory: Nora Planas, Ph.D., Shuxian Hu, and Professor Laura Gagliardi

The paper can be viewed here.