A novel facet of carbonyliron-diene photochemistry:: The η4-s-trans isomer of the classical Fe(CO)3(η4-s-cis-1,3-butadiene) discovered by time-resolved IR spectroscopy and theoretically examined by density functional methods

The photolysis of Fe(CO)3(η4-s-cis-1,3-butadiene) (1) and Fe(CO)4(η2-1,3-butadiene) (2), formerly studied in low-temperature matrixes, is reexamined in cyclohexane solution at ambient temperature using time-resolved IR spectroscopy in the v(CO) region. Flash photolysis of 2 (λexc = 308 nm) generates Fe(CO)3(η4-s-trans-1,3-butadiene) (5) as a transient product, which then rearranges to form the classical η4-s-cis-1,3-butadiene complex 1. Species 5, previously addressed as the coordinately unsaturated Fe(CO)3(η2-1,3-butadiene) (3), is also photogenerated from 1, in this case along with the very short-lived CO loss fragment Fe(CO)2(η4-1,3-butadiene) (τ < 4 μs under CO atmosphere). It decays by temperature-dependent first-order kinetics (τ = 13 ms at 25°C; ΔH‡ = 17.3 kcal·mol-1) with nearly complete recovery of 1. According to density functional calculations at the BP86 level of theory, 5 resides in a distinct energy minimum, 20.3 kcal·mol-1 above 1 and separated from it by a barrier of 15.0 kcal·mol-1. Its computed structure involves a diene dihedral angle of 129°. Species 3 (with a diene dihedral angle of -150.1°), by contrast, is predicted to exist in a rather flat minimum, which makes it too short-lived for detection with our instrumentation. Flash photolysis of Fe(CO)5 generates the very short-lived (<1 μs) doubly unsaturated Fe(CO)3(solv) species in addition to the familiar Fe(CO)4(solv) fragment (τ = 10-15 μs), Fe2(CO)9 being the ultimate product in the absence of potential trapping agents other than CO. Deliberate contamination of the system with water gives rise to the formation of Fe(CO)4(H2O) as a longer lived transient (ca. 1 ms). In the presence of 1,3-butadiene, both 2 and 5 appear almost instantaneously. The latter decays, again in the millisecond time range, with formation of 1, thus providing clear evidence of a single-photon route from Fe(CO)5 to 1 in addition to the established two-photon sequence via the monosubstituted complex 2.