in toluene (under inert gas by Schlenk technique); a soln. of the bicyclononatriene and the Mn-complex is heated to 80°C for 48 h, cooled to room temp.; the solvent is evapd., solid is extd., filtd., the filtrate is cooled to -30°C;

CH3Li in tetrahydrofuran; diethyl ether (under inert gas by Schlenk technique); a soln. of the bicyclononatriene and MeLi in THF/ether is cooled to -78°C, this reacts with the Fe-salt and CpNa; the solvents are evapd., extd., resulting soln. is concd., chromy., crystn.;