Lanthanide hydroxide cubane clusters anchoring ferrocenes: Model compounds for fixation of organometallic fragments on a lanthanide oxide surface

Abstract

The reaction of the lanthanide trichloride hexahydrates [LnCl 3·6H2O] (Ln = Yb, Lu) with two equivalents of benzoylferrocenoylmethane resulted in the tetranuclear lanthanide hydroxo clusters [Ln4(μ3-OH)4(FcacacPh)8] (Ln = Yb (1), Lu (2); FcacacPh = benzoylferrocenoylmethanide). Compounds 1 and 2 are made up of a distorted tetranuclear lanthanide Ln4O4 cubane core consisting of four μ3-oxygen atoms while the eight FcacacPh ligands build up the peripheral part of the cluster. These compounds contain the maximum number of ferrocene units anchored to any molecular metal-heteroatom framework reported so far and for which the X-ray structures are known. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2006.