The reaction of the carbide carbon anion [Fe
5C(CO)
14]
2- with ClHg
M in tetrahydrofurangives the new hepta
metallic clusters (NEt
4)[Fe
5C(CO)
14{
mages/entities/
mgr.gif">-HgM}] (M = Mo(CO)
3Cp (
1a),W(CO)
3Cp (
1b), Mn(CO)
5 (
1c), Co(CO)
4 (
1d), Fe(CO)
2Cp (
1e)). The spiro species (NEt
4)
2[
mages/entities/
mgr.gif">
4-Hg{Fe
5C(CO)
14}
2] (
2) has been isolated by reaction of the pentairon carbide carbon dianionwith Hg(NO
3)
2. The structures of
1b and
2 have been deter
mined by X-ray diffraction
methods. The anion of
1b has an Fe
5 square-pyra
midal
metal skeleton in which a basaledge is bridged by the HgW(CO)
3Cp
moiety. For the cluster anion
2, the
metal core consistsof a four-coordinate
mercury ato
m bridging the bond edges of two square-based-pyra
midalpentairon units. The electroche
mical behavior of these co
mpounds has been investigatedby cyclic volta
mmetry and coulo
metry. The
57Fe M&ou
ml;ssbauer spectroscopy of co
mplexes
1b,
ereveals the existence of three and four types of iron sites, respectively. This study has beenextended by reacting the new species (NEt
4)[Fe
5C(CO)
14{
mages/entities/
mgr.gif">-HgM}] (
1a,
b) with AuPPh
3+ togive the neutral octa
metallic clusters [Fe
5C(CO)
14{
mages/entities/
mgr.gif">-HgM}{
mages/entities/
mgr.gif">-AuPPh
3}] (M = Mo(CO)
3Cp(
3a), W(CO)
3Cp (
3b)).