Tris(acetylacetonato)iron(III)
chemical compound
Tris(acetylacetonato)iron(III), often abbreviated Fe(acac)3, is a ferric coordination complex featuring acetylacetonate (acac) ligands, making it one of a family of metal acetylacetonates. It is a red air-stable solid that dissolves in nonpolar organic solvents.
Preparation
Fe(acac)3 is prepared by treating freshly precipitated Fe(OH)3 with acetylacetone.
Fe(OH)3 + 3 HC5H7O2 → Fe(C5H7O2)3 + 3 H2O
Structure and properties
Fe(acac)3 is an octahedral complex with six equivalent Fe-O bonds with bond distances of about 2.00 Å. The regular geometry is consistent with a high-spin Fe3+ core. As the metal orbitals are all evenly occupied, the complex is not subject to Jahn–Teller distortions and thus adopts a D3 molecular symmetry. In contrast, the related metal acetylacetonate Mn(acac)3 adopts a more distorted octahedral structure. The 5 unpaired d-electrons also result in the complex being paramagnetic, with a magnetic moment of 5.90 μB.
Fe(acac)3 possesses helical chirality. The Δ- and Λ-enantiomers slowly inter-convert via Bailar and Ray–Dutt twists. The rate of interconversion is sufficiently slow to allow its enantiomers to be partially resolved. In diethyl ether solution, at ambient temperature, the half-life of racemisation is 3.3 minutes.
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