Microwave irradiation and flow chemistry for a straightforward synthesis of piano-stool iron complexes

•We prepared neutral or cationic cyclopentadienyl iron complexes using microwave technology.•We prepared neutral or cationic cyclopentadienyl iron complexes using flow chemistry technology.•The reaction times do not exceed 10 min.•These complexes constitute interesting starting materials to new derivatives of this kind.

Two series of piano-stool iron(II) complexes bearing bidentate phosphine or mixed phosphorus–nitrogen ligands have been prepared upon reaction with CpFe(CO)2I or [CpFe(naphthalene)][PF6] under microwave irradiation or using flow chemistry.

Graphical abstractSince the introduction of microwave and flow technologies in chemistry, there has been tremendous growth in applications to organic chemistry but their use in organometallic synthesis (namely for the preparation of organometallic species) are still rare, and flow technology had no precedence in the literature for the synthesis of iron complexes.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide