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04/24/2013

Iron and chromium show close bonding

Recent research from the research group of Professor

Researchers show that iron and chromium can bond in an ultra-short way. Professors Connie Lu and Laura Gagliardi, Graduate Student Paul "Alex" Rudd, Undergraduate Shengsi "Mike" Liu, Postdoctoral Associate Nora Planas, and Eckhard Bill, Ph.D., from the Max Planck Institute of Chemical Energy Conversion, teamed up to understand how different first-row transition metals can bond to one another.

In a paper published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, the researchers report their discovery of the first isolable example of metal-metal multiple bonds between different first-row transition metals. Their studies reveal that the iron-chromium bonds are ultra-short (less than 2 Å) with highly delocalized triple bonds and unusually large quadrupole splittings in Mössbauer spectroscopy. The iron-chromium bond is also capable of undergoing redox reactions, as shown below, whereby the molecule can be reduced by one electron. Click here to read the abstract.

This research was also highlighted in Nature Chemistry.