Charge-compensated -carborane derivatives in the synthesis of iron(II) bis(dicarbollide) complexes.

A series of stable iron(II) bis(dicarbollide) derivatives [8,8'-(RNHC(Et)HN)-3,3'-Fe(1,2-CBH)] (R = Pr, R = Ph, (CH)OH, (CH)OH, (CH)NMe) was prepared starting from FeCl or [FeCl(dppe)] and the corresponding -carboranyl amidines [10-RNHC(Et)HN-7,8-CBH]. In a similar way, the reactions of the oxonium derivatives of -carborane with FeCl in tetrahydrofuran in the presence of -BuOK lead to the corresponding stable oxonium derivatives iron(II) bis(dicarbollide) [8,8'-(RR'O)-3,3'-Fe(1,2-CBH)] (RR' = (CH), (CH)O(CH), (CH); R = R' = Et), which can be alternatively prepared by the reaction of the parent iron(II) bis(dicarbollide) with tetrahydrofuran or 1,4-dioxane in the presence of MeSO. The cyclic voltammetry studies of the synthesized iron(II) bis(dicarbollide) derivatives revealed that the introduction of amidinium and oxonium substituents leads to a significant increase in the Fe/Fe redox potential relative to the parent iron(II) bis(dicarbollide). The redox potentials of the oxonium derivatives are close to the redox potential of ferrocene and somewhat lower than redox potentials of sulfonium and phosphonium derivatives of iron(II) bis(dicarbollide).