Study of the metal-oxygen bond in simple tris-chelate complexes by He(I) photoelectron spectroscopy

Abstract

Vapour-phase He(I) photoelectron spectra are reported for a variety of tris-chelates of the form ML₃, where L is the enolate anion of a β-diketone (commonly hexafluoroacetylacetone) and M is one of the metals: Al, Ga, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Co, Mn, Fe, Ru. The spectra yield information concerning the details of the metal–ligand bonding and, in the case of the transition metal complexes, information about the relative energies of the metal d and ligand orbitals.