Isolation and structural and electronic characterization of salts of the decamethylferrocene dication

Abstract

Charging up the iron in ferrocene salts Ferrocene is the archetype of the sandwich compounds, so called because a metal atom is inserted between two carbon rings. The elucidation of ferrocene's structure was pivotal to the development of organometallic chemistry during the mid-20th century. The ease with which the iron in the center of the molecule can toggle between the +2 and +3 oxidation states has made the compound a common electrochemical standard. Malischewski et al. report the synthesis and isolation of ferrocene salts with iron in the +4 state, which they characterize crystallographically and spectroscopically. Science , this issue p. 678