Reaction of 2 equiv of the previously reported germolyl anion Li[C
4Me
4GeSi(SiMe
3)
3]
withFeCl
2(THT)
1.5 (THT = tetrahydrothiophene) at lo
w temperature gave the ne
w bis-
5-germolylcomplex [
5-C
4Me
4GeSi(SiMe
3)
3]
2Fe (
1),
which
was characterized by X-ray crystallography.Reaction of
1 with I
2 resulted in loss of the germolyl ligand as C
4Me
4Ge(I)[Si(SiMe
3)
3],
whilethe reaction
with MeLi produced the ferrocenophane
ansa-(Me
3Si)
2Si(
5-GeC
4Me
4)
2Fe (
4).X-ray crystallographic analysis of this compound revealed that the Ge atoms are displacedsignificantly out of the C
4 plane. Attempts to induce the ring-opening polymerization of
4were unsuccessful.