Negatively Charged Iron-Bridged Fullerene Dimer {Fe(CO)2-μ2-η2,η2-C60}22.

The interaction of {Cryptand(K+)}(C60•-) with Fe3(CO)12 produced {Cryptand(K+)}2{Fe(CO)2-μ2-η2,η2-C60}22-·2.5C6H4Cl2 (1) as the first negatively charged iron-bridged fullerene C60 dimer. The bridged iron atoms are coordinated to two 6-6 bonds of one C60 hexagon with short and long C(C60)-Fe bonds with average lengths of 2.042(3) and 2.088(3) Å. Fullerenes are close to each other in the dimer with a center-to-center interfullerene distance of 10.02 Å. Optical spectra support the localization of negative electron density on the Fe2(CO)4 units, which causes a 50 cm-1 shift of the C≡O vibration bands to smaller wavenumbers, and the C60 cages. Dimers are diamagnetic and electron paramagnetic resonance silent and have a singlet ground state resulting from the formation of an Fe-Fe bond in the dimer with a length of 2.978(4) Å. According to density functional theory calculations, the excited triplet state is higher than the ground state by 6.5 kcal/mol. Compound 1 shows a broad near-infrared band with a maximum at 970 nm, which is attributable to the charge transfer from the orbitals localized mainly on iron atoms to the C60 ligand.