Chemists from the University of Delaware, Newark, in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recently reported their preparation of a complex containing two chromium atoms connected by the shortest ever metal-metal bond, 1.8028 Ã… (0.l nm) long. The scientists, including Prof. Klaus H. Theopold and graduate student Kevin A. Kreisel, believe the compound contains a quintuple bond, i.e., five bonds between the two chromiums.
To make the complex, the scientists first reacted chromium chloride with a bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)diazadiene ligand, which has the structure Ar-N=C-C=N-Ar (Ar is a bulky aryl group). This intermediate dark-green compound was then reduced using KC8 (potassium metal in graphite) to give the unusual product. The compound crystallizes from ether as red/green plates. The quintuple bond between the metals is weakened by some mixing in from antibonding orbitals, reducing the overall bond order to around 4.28. The bond length is 0.026 Ã… shorter than the previous record, a chromium-chromium complex prepared in 1978 by F. Albert Cotton, which contained a quadruple bond 1.828 Ã… long.
