Decomposition studies of group 6 hexacarbonyl complexes. Part 1: Production and decomposition of Mo(CO)6 and W(CO)6

Chemical studies of superheavy elements require fast and efficient techniques, due to short half-lives and low production rates of the investigated nuclides. Here, we advocate for using a tubular flow reactor for assessing the thermal stability of the Sg carbonyl complex Sg(CO)(6). The experimental setup was tested with Mo and W carbonyl complexes, as their properties are established and supported by theoretical predictions. The suggested approach proved to be effective in discriminating between the thermal stabilities of Mo(CO)(6) and W(CO)(6). Therefore, an experimental verification of the predicted Sg-CO bond dissociation energy seems to be feasible by apply-ing this technique. By investigating the effect of Mo-104,Mo-105 beta-decay on the formation of Tc-104,Tc-105 carbonyl complex, we estimated the lower reaction time limit for the metal carbonyl synthesis in the gas phase to be more than 100ms. We examined further the influence of the wall material of the recoil chamber, the carrier gas composition, the gas flow rate, and the pressure on the production yield of Mo-104(CO)(6), so that the future stability tests with Sg(CO)(6) can be optimized accordingly.