Photodissociation of iron-pyrene and iron-perylene cation complexes

Gas-phase cation complexes between iron atoms and the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) pyrene (C16H10) and perylene (C20H12) are produced in a molecular beam using laser vaporization in a pulsed nozzle cluster source. Mass spectrometry reveals the formation of clusters of the form Fex(pyrene)y+ for up to x = 4 and y = 2 and Fex(perylene)y+ for up to x = 2 and y = 3. Photodissociation studies show that the PAH ligand molecular cation is the most prominent fragment for each system. In both systems, species with more than one iron present fragment by the loss of neutral iron atoms. Additionally, there is evidence that these clusters form sandwich and multi-metal sandwich structures.