A low temperature reversible phase transition for 1,1'-bis-(ferrocenyldimethylsilyl)ferrocenylene, (η5-FcSiMe2C5H4)2Fe, an oligomeric model for silyleneferrocenylene polymers
We have reinvestigated the solid state structure of 1,1'-bis-(ferrocenyldimethylsilyl)ferrocenylene, (η5-FcSiMe2C5H4)2Fe, Fc = (η5-C5H5)Fe(η5-C5H4). Using a DSC technique we observed a reversible phase transition for this compound at 169(3)K with ΔH = 1.1 kJ/mol, and ΔS = 6.54 J/mol K. A single crystal X-ray diffraction study has demonstrated that this phase change involves a transformation from a high temperature phase, space group P21/c, Z = 2, to a triclinic low temperature phase, space group P[Formula: see text], Z = 4. The phase transition involves the loss of the molecular crystallographic center of symmetry and rotations about the terminal and central cyclopentadienyl ring pairs. The results are compared to those reported for ferrocene.Key words: solid state, phase transition, silyleneferrocenylene.