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My thesis research was based on binuclear organometallic compounds of rhodium and iridium, bridged with the bidentate ligand "dppm":
Bis(diphenylphosphino)methane is like "the Force".
It surrounds the metals (steric control of reactivity), penetrates
them (the donor ability of phosphines controls the electron richness
of the metal centres) and it binds the universe, I mean the compound,
together. It also allows us to characterize the compounds through
31P{1H} NMR spectroscopy.
The reason I worked on these complexes is simple. Mononuclear rhodium and iridium complexes are very important as catalysts, although it is not certain exactly how some of these catalysts work. If mononuclear complexes do interesting things, then binuclear complexes should also do interesting things. Therefore, we decided to look into it.
Nearly all chemists with any experience in organometallic chemistry know about Vaska's compound- a square planar iridium(I) complex, with two phosphine ligands, one carbonyl, and a chloride. This compound (along with analogous compounds with the carbonyl or halide substituted with another ligand) has contributed greatly to our understanding of organometallic processes. If you take two molecules of Vaska's compound, place them face-to-face, then change the monodentate phosphines to dppms, then you get Ir2Cl2(CO)2(dppm)2. This binuclear analogue of Vaska's complex has provided much interesting chemistry (done by other people, of course).
My Di-iridium Alkyne Chemistry
If you are interested in chemistry, some really good
journals are published by VCH Verlagsgellschaft
and by the American Chemical Society.
Well worth reading!