A series of ferrocenylboron capped tris dioximate iron(II) clathrochelates was synthesized by the template condensation of three molecules of dimethylglyoxime (H 2 Dm), cyclohexanedione 1,2 dioxime (H 2 Nx), or cyclooctanedione 1,2 dioxime (H 2 Ox) and two molecules of ferrocenylbo ronic acid (FcB(OH) 2 ) on the Fe 2+ ion matrix. The yields of the clathrochelate derivatives of alicyclic dioximes were substantially higher than that of their acyclic analog, because the molecules of alicyclic H 2 Nx and H 2 Ox α dioximes have the s cis configuration suitable for complex formation, whereas the H 2 Dm molecules in solution have the s trans configuration. The synthesized compounds were characterized using elemental analysis, IR and UV-Vis spectroscopies, MALDI TOF mass spec trometry, 1 H and 13 C{ 1 H} NMR and 57 Fe Mössbauer spectroscopies, and X ray diffraction analysis. The crystal of FeDm 3 (BFc) 2 •CHCl 3 contains two types of crystallographically nonequivalent clathrochelate molecules. The intermolecular contacts C-H...Cp formed by the ferrocenyl frag ments and cyclooctane carbocycles and the interactions Cp-H...O were observed in the crystal of FeOx 3 (BFc) 2 . The structural lability of the cyclooctane substituents allows the FeOx 3 (BFc) 2 mole cules to arrange by the "bump into hollow" mode because of attractive H...H interactions between the ribbed substituents of the neighboring molecules. The geometry of the ferrocenylborate iron(II) clathrochelates is intermediate between a trigonal prism and a trigonal antiprism.Among a variety of the multicentered hybrid and poly nuclear d metal complexes, the polytopic complexes with ferrocenyl fragments able to undergo reversible redox processes at relatively low potentials are worth of special attention. Earlier, both the ferrocenylboron capped iron(II) and cobalt(II, III) oximehydrazonate clathroche lates and semiclathrochelates 1-3 and some α dioximate iron(II) complexes with apical ferrocenyl substituents 4 have been synthesized.During the last years, the ferrocene derivatives are used successfully for controlling the complex radical polymerization of vinyl monomers. 5,6 Therefore, we in tended to obtain the iron(II) clathrochelates with two apical ferrocenyl substituents and then to study the influ ence of these complexes on polymerization processes. The synthetic and structural results of this study are dis cussed in the present paper.
ExperimentalCommercial dimethylglyoxime, cyclohexanedione 1,2 dioxime (nioxime), FeCl 2 •4H 2 O (Fluka), and ferrocenylboronic acid FcB(OH) 2 (Aldrich) were used. Cyclooctanedione 1,2 dioxime (octoxime) was synthesized as described earlier. 7 * Dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the L. Ya. Karpov Institute of Physical Chemistry.