FOURIER-TRANSFORM INFRARED STUDY AND MATRIX EFFECTS OF ALUMINUM AND GALLIUM CARBONYLS ISOLATED IN ARGON AND NITROGEN

Gallium carbonylic complexes were produced by high-temperature vaporization of gallium with excess carbon powder. Their Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra have been analysed both in argon and nitrogen matrices. A proper choice of the experimental conditions allowed the observation of GaCO and Ga(CO)(2) separately. The first experimental evidence of GaCO was thus settled. Spectra of Ga(CO)(2) in argon were consistent with a bent C-2v symmetry. A surprising lowering of this symmetry was observed in the nitrogen matrix. This required a reinvestigation of the Al-CO complexes in argon in order to obtain comparable data. Spectra of the aluminum complexes isolated in nitrogen, not available in the literature, were also studied. In this matrix the Al-C stretching mode of AlCO was possibly detected.