Thermal rearrangement reactions of tricarbonyliron lactone complexes

Abstract

A variety of tricarbonyliron lactone complexes (1)–(12) undergo thermal decomposition upon warming in deoxygenated solvents to give products arising from decarbonylation, decarboxylation, and rearrangement pathways. The products of the reactions were characterised by spectroscopic or X-ray crystallographic methods, or in some cases, by independent synthesis. Mechanisms to account for the various transformations are also proposed.