Synfacts 2010(3): 0302-0302  
DOI: 10.1055/s-0029-1219260
Synthesis of Materials and Unnatural Products
© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart ˙ New York

Photo-Activated Metal Migration

Contributor(s): Timothy M. Swager, D. Barney Walker
T. A. Albright, P. I. Dosa, T. N. Grossmann, V. N. Khrustalev, O. A. Oloba, R. Padilla, R. Paubelle, A. Stanger, T. V. Timofeeva, K. P. C. Vollhardt*
University of California at Berkeley, USA
Further Information

Publication History

Publication Date:
18 February 2010 (online)

Significance

An innovative strategy for storing solar energy using cyclopentadienylcobalt complexes such as 1 is reported. On exposure to ­sunlight the {CpCo} unit of 1 migrates around the linear phenylene backbone to the outer cyclo-butadiene ring resulting in partial formation of higher energy complex 2. This isomerization process can be reversed thermally and repeated without product decomposition.