Berry pseudorotation enabled photodissociation of Fe(CO)<sub>5</sub> observed by ultrafast electron diffraction.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 42236707.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-026-73890-8 and PMC identifier 13234148.
- Licence recorded as CC BY-NC-ND.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
The structural dynamics of metal carbonyls are central to processes ranging from catalysis to organometallic synthesis. Here we investigate the photodissociation of a prototypical transition metal carbonyl, Fe(CO)<sub>5</sub>, using mega-electron-volt ultrafast electron diffraction. By separately tracking structural evolution along the axial and equatorial directions, we provide an atomistic, angle-resolved view of the nuclear motions preceding CO dissociation and infer key features of the excited-state potential energy surface from the experimental observations. We further show that vibrational coupling before reaching the conical intersection facilitates the loss of a random carbonyl ligand via the Berry pseudorotation mechanism.