Nuclear recoil reactions in polynuclear metal carbonyls

Abstract

Nuclear recoil reactions have been studied in the compounds Ru3(CO)12, Fe3(CO)12, Fe(CO)5, and W(CO)6, with the objective of testing the hypothesis that the retention would be closely related to the molecular complexity. Retention values were found to be 41, 26, 41, and 52%, respectively, after exhaustive purification, and the hypothesis is concluded to be invalid for these compounds. A recoil yield of 26% is found for Fe3(CO)12 in Fe(CO)5, and 17% for Fe(CO)5 in Fe3(CO)12. Some reactions are suggested which can account qualitatively for the observed results. The critical stage of the reaction is assumed to be the hot-zone formation of a mononuclear radioactive species M(CO)3 or M(CO)4, which reacts further by various stepwise reactions.A retention of 52 or 64% was found for W(CO)6, depending on whether column chromatography or vacuum sublimation was used as the first step in the separation. The lower value is preferred.