Organometallic Sandwich Compounds in Layered Lattices

Abstract

The intercalation of organometallic guest molecules between the sheets of layered inorganic host lattices has attracted a considerable amount of research over the past 18 years. The process of intercalation has been found to dramatically alter the bulk properties of these materials, and there has been much interest in their con- ductivity, optical, catalytic and magnetic properties. Nevertheless, fundamental questions regarding the orientational preferences and the redox states of sandwich compounds intercalated in these layer hosts have been the subject of considerable debate in the recent literature. The introduction of organometallic species, which often have interesting chemistry in their own right and whose steric and electronic properties can be systematically varied via either metal or ring substitution, offers the solid state chemist a unique opportunity to tailor the properties of the resultant material in a controlled manner, and at what are, for solid state reactions, extremely low temperatures. We have reviewed with specific examples the developments in this area. and discuss the current state of the art.

Key Words:

• intercalation
• organometallic
• layered lattice
• solid state
• magnetism
• solid state
• metallocene
• bis(arene)metal