Iron guanidinate complexes and formation of a novel dinuclear iron(ii) species with a dianionic μ-η2∶η2 (biguanidinate) ligand

Reaction of the lithium salt of N,N′,N″-triisopropylguanidinate with Fe(III) or Fe(II) halides led to isolation of the new species [(PriN)2C(HNPri)]2FeCl (1) and [μ-η2-(PriN)2C(HNPri)] 2{Fe[η2-(PriN)2C(HNPr i)]}2 (2); attempted alkylation of 1 with 1 equiv. of a variety of reagents produced 2; the reaction of 2 with LiCH2SiMe3 resulted in a coupling reaction between the two bridging ligands to yield [(μ-η2∶η2-(PriN)2 C)2NPri)]{Fe[η2-(PrNi )2C(HNPri)]}2.