Ultrapurification of iron pentacarbonyl by distillation techniques

Volatile impurities have been removed from iron pentacarbonyl of natural isotopic composition by vacuum pumping. We have examined the behavior of impurities in the course of fractional distillation of iron pentacarbonyl. As a result of simple distillation, we have obtained an iron pentacarbonyl sample containing on the order of 10–4 mol % C3–C6 hydrocarbon impurities, 10–3 mol % C7–C8 hydrocarbons, and 10–8 to 10–6 wt % metallic impurities. We have estimated the effective separation factor at a distillation rate of 0.021 kg/(m2 s) for a number of impurities in Fe(CO)5.