Going Homoleptic: Synthesis and Full Characterization of Stable Manganese Tetranitrosyl Cation Salts

Although similar to carbon monoxide, the chemistry of homoleptic nitrogen monoxide complexes is fundamentally unexplored compared to their carbonyl analogues. Herein we report the synthesis of the first truly homoleptic transition-metal nitrosyl cation as the salt of the weakly coordinating anions (WCAs) [Al(OR^F )₄ ]^- and [F{Al(OR^F )₃ }₂ ]^- (R^F =C(CF₃ )₃ ). These salts are easily accessible in good yields, phase pure, and were fully characterized by IR/Raman, NMR and UV/Vis spectroscopy as well as single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction. They may serve as unprecedented simple model systems for theoretical and experimental studies of nitrosyl complexes.