Nature Communications, Published online: 03 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-73890-8 Iron pentacarbonyl undergoes CO dissociation under UV excitation. While prior works suggested preferential loss of axial ligands, MeV ultrafast electron diffraction experiments show photolysis affects random CO ligands via a Berry pseudorotation.
Berry pseudorotation enabled photodissociation of Fe(CO) 5 observed by ultrafast electron diffraction
Jie Yang