Boryl substituted group 13 metallylenes: complexes with an iron carbonyl fragment.

The first examples of boryl substituted aluminylene and gallylene complexes, [(DAB)B(THF)Al{Fe(CO)3(μ-CO)}]2 and [(DAB)BGa{μ-Fe(CO)4}]2 (DAB = {(C6H3Pri2-2,6)NCH}2) have been prepared by reduction of MX2(THF){B(DAB)} (M = Al or Ga, X = Cl or Br) with K2[Fe(CO)4]. Spectroscopic and crystallographic analyses of the compounds show them to be structurally distinct dimers, the latter of which possesses a close GaGa separation that computational analyses reveal has negligible bonding character.