Organometallic Compounds.

Studies are described aimed at testing whether novel polymeric chemical structures can be synthesized in which hydrocarbon rings and metal atoms alternate. A number of appropriate hydrocarbon dianions have been synthesized for the first time, as have a number of molecules containing two metal atoms sandwiched between a pair of planar hydrocarbons. Structures like this were not known before the start of the work. Some properties of these novel materials have been measured. The first attempts have been made to implement two schemes designed to prevent the combination of a hydrocarbon dianion and a metal halide from giving a dimeric structure rather than a polymer. One scheme involves the preparation of helical hydrocarbons capped by five-membered rings, and ways to make such materials are developed. The other involves the preparation of a hydrocarbon trianion with a three-fold axis of symmetry and three terminal five-membered rings. The first example, the trindene trianion, is prepared. Author