NEW METHOD FOR PREPARING SUPPORTED METALS - DECOMPOSITION OF METALLOCENES BY THE GRAPHITIDE KC8

The reaction between the binary graphitide KC8 and a biscyclopentadienyl metal M(C5H5)2 (M=Fe and Ni) commonly called metallocene, has been performed under a controlled atmosphere in dimethoxyethane (DME) at different temperatures. This method has the advantage of producing 'pure' metal supported on graphite, since the byproduct C5H5K formed is soluble in DME. In the case of ferrocene, the reaction is not complete and the solid phase is iron supported on a ternary compound, KC24(DME)1.35. The metallic particles thus prepared are expected to have interesting catalytic activity. In this work, the reaction products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX).