Berry pseudorotation enabled photodissociation of Fe(CO)5 observed by ultrafast electron diffraction
Open Access
- 3 June 2026
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Nature in Nature Communications
- Vol. 17 (1) , 4910
Abstract
The structural dynamics of metal carbonyls are central to processes ranging from catalysis to organometallic synthesis. Here we investigate the photodissociation of a prototypical transition metal carbonyl, Fe(CO)5, using mega-electron-volt ultrafast electron diffraction. By separately tracking structural evolution along the axial and equatorial directions, we provide an atomistic, angle-resolved view of the nuclear motions preceding CO dissociation and infer key features of the excited-state potential energy surface from the experimental observations. We further show that vibrational coupling before reaching the conical intersection facilitates the loss of a random carbonyl ligand via the Berry pseudorotation mechanism.Keywords
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Funding Information
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (22273044)
- Tsinghua University (52300800124)
- Vetenskapsrådet (2022-06725)
- Vetenskapsrådet (2018-05973)
- Vetenskapsrådet (2022-06725)
- Vetenskapsrådet (2018-05973)
- Basic Energy Sciences (DE-SC0014170)
- U.S. Department of Energy (DE-AC0276SF00515)
- U.S. Department of Energy (DE-AC0276SF00515)
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