Fluorocarbon sandwich compounds: Bis(octafluorocyclooctatetraene) derivatives of the first row transition metals

DFT studies on the early transition metal (C8F8)2M derivatives (M = Ti, V, Cr) predict the two C8F8 rings to have only 12 of their 16 carbon atoms bonded to the metal. The transition metals from vanadium to iron are predicted to form tetrahapto-hexahapto derivatives (η4-C8F8)M(η6-C8F8) (M = V, Cr, Mn, Fe). The lowest energy (C8F8)2M (M = Co, Ni) structures are bis(tetrahapto) for Co and dihapto-tetrahapto for Ni.