Practical Analysis Of Ferrovalen

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Aim
The aim of this experiment was to prepare a pure sample of the organometallic compound ferocene.

Introduction1

Ferrocene [bis( – cyclopentadienyl)iron] was the first compound of its kind to be discovered and gave rise to the class of organometallic compounds known as metallocenes. Ferrocene consists of iron metal coordinated to two cyclopentadienyl rings, one on each side of the metal. It was discovered accidentally by Pauson and Kealy, as they were trying to make fulvalene.

More generally, these compounds can be classified as sandwich complexes. In a sandwich complex the metal centre lies between two pi bonded ligands. The metal centre in ferrocene is bonded to all 5 carbon atoms of the Cp ligand.

To prepare ferrocene, the cyclopentadienyl …show more content…

The melting point range of the product was 167-172 OC. This is slightly below the literature value of 172-174 OC2, indicating that the product was not completely pure.

The crude yield was 3.71g.
The limiting reagent is the cyclopentadiene, and the reacton is 2:1 with respect to cyclopentadiene. Therefore the theorectical yield of ferrocene is 32.8 mmol.

This yield is reasonable, however it must be noted that this was the crude yield before the product was purified by sublimation. At this point the crystals most likely still contained impurities and solvent, so this is not a true yield.
One potential source of loss in this experiment is the cyclopentadiene. This usually exists in the form of a dimer, but is cracked by heating during distillation. It must be used fresh or it will redimerise. It is possible that some cyclopentadiene dimerised and therefore was not available for reaction, reducing the yield.
Although ferrocene itself is air stable, the reaction was carried out in a nitrogen atmosphere as the reactants are air sensitive. If air was allowed to enter the system at some point, some reactant could have been destroyed, again lowering the …show more content…

This suggests that the background scan may not have run properly. However, all of the ferrocene peaks are still clearly visible. The most important peaks in this spectrum are the aromatic ones, which show that the cyclopentadienyl ligand retains its aromaticity on binding to the metal centre. The aromatic C-H peaks occur higher than the C-H stretch in an alkene, and there are also aromatic overtones at 1636 cm-1.
The Fe-Cp stretch occurs at 471 cm-1 and is a single sharp peak, confirming that the iron is equally bonded to all 5 carbons of each ligand.
The peak at 471 cm-1 also has a slight side peak at a higher frequency, which is the Cp tilt. A slight broad OH peak an be seen in the spectrum around 3500 cm-1. This shows that the sample still contained water. This fits with the melting point data, which showed that the ferrocene was not completely pure. Other than the water peak, the spectrum is quite clean, suggesting no other impurities. In test 2, sublimation is occurring. This is a method of purification where the ferrocene is heated so it goes into the gas phase without going through the liquid phase. It then solidifies and forms pure ferrocene crystals on the upper watch glass and leaves non-volatile impurities behind on the lower

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