Chemical behavior of recoil species in chromium, molybdenum and tungsten hexacarbonyls in solution

Retentions following neutron capture have been determined for chromium, molybdenum and tungsten hexacarbonyls in the solid state and in solution in n-pentane and n-pentane-Fe(CO)5. The retentions of Mo(CO)6 and W(CO)6 showed concentrationdependencies and were markedly increased by addition of Fe(CO)5. The formation of 99Mo(CO)6 was observed in the neutron-irradiated MoCl5-Fe(CO)5 system. This is explained by the contribution of a primary rentention and reactions involving fast re-formation, substitution and slow re-formation. At lower concentrations, the retentions observed are due to the primary retention and fast re-formation reaction, whereas at higher concentrations the substitution and slow re-formation reactions play an important role. The solution of Cr(CO)6 shows anomalous behavior. (orig.)