Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Carbonyls/Carbonyl Clathrates of Iridium

budullewraagh - 11-6-2005 at 16:21

i was looking through a book on the elements today when i came across iridium. interestingly enough, it mentioned the Ir- oxidation state, as well as the Ir+, which, apparently, are very rare. In addition, it mentioned a clathrate where iridium is at a neutral state.

Ir-1: [Ir(CO03(PPh3)]-
Ir(O): [Ir4(CO)12]
Ir+1: [Ir(CO)Cl(PPh3)2]

has anyone ever tried making any these? is anyone familiar with any of these?

the concept of reducing elemental iridium to an anion is most intriguing.

[Edited on 12-6-2005 by budullewraagh]

Pyridinium - 11-6-2005 at 18:01

That last one is called Vaska's Complex, I just looked it up in a book I have here. It has some very interesting properties.

The Ir-1 compound... wow, weird.

It looks like some of these are triphenylphosphine derivatives?

unionised - 12-6-2005 at 07:15

Negative oxidation states are not that unusual, Fe, Co, Ni and others do it. Almost all of these are complexes with CC, phosphines or (on a good day) cyanide.

Borek - 12-6-2005 at 07:57

I wonder if you can really assign negative charge to the metal, or is it rather effect of calculation using standard oxidation numbers for all other atoms in the particle.

neutrino - 12-6-2005 at 09:18

I'd bet that it actually is a negative charge. Considering the fact that anions of cesium have been made, Ir<sup>-</sup> doesn’t seem so unlikely.

[Edited on 12-6-2005 by neutrino]