Bond multidentate ligands

They demonstrate the sensitivity of the Ru—N bond length to the trans-donor atom and also how when a multidentate ligand is involved bond lengths do not necessarily shorten on increasing the oxidation state. 

In this way hosts 141-145 with both a cr-bonded Lewis acidic boron atom for complexation of anions and a conventional multidentate ligand for cations are generated. Complexation experiments of the 21-membered crown [6] boronate 142 with different potassium salts KX (X = F, Cl, Br, I, SCN, CN, OMe) indicate that there is a high specificity for the incorporation of KF, whereby F is bound covalently to the boron atom and is complexed by the crown ether (146, Fig. 39). An X-ray study has shown that the complexation of KF is heterotopic, i.e., both ions are complexed inside the same host. Some of the salts can only be bound in a monotopic way (KI and KSCN) [237]. 

Dendrimers can be constructed from chemical species other than purely organic monomers. For example, they can be built up from metal branching centres such as ruthenium or osmium with multidentate ligands. The resulting molecules are known as metallodendrimers. Such molecules can retain their structure by a variety of mechanisms, including complexation, hydrogen bonding and ionic interactions. 

Table 2.3 Bond distances (pm) in selected complexes with multidentate ligands.

The establishment of the first bond appears to signal rapid successive ring closures with most of the multidentate ligands examined. (However, consider the Ni(II)-fad system. Sec. 1.8.2) In certain cases the later steps in chelation can be shown to be more rapid than the earlier ones, by clever experiments involving laser photolysis (Table 3.4) or pH-adjustments of solutions containing partially formed chelates. ... 

Sargeson and his coworkers have developed an area of cobalt(III) coordination chemistry which has enabled the synthesis of complicated multidentate ligands directly around the metal. The basis for all of this chemistry is the high stability of cobalt(III) ammine complexes towards dissociation. Consequently, a coordinated ammonia molecule can be deprotonated with base to produce a coordinated amine anion (or amide anion) which functions as a powerful nucleophile. Such a species can attack carbonyl groups, either in intramolecular or intermolecular processes. Similar reactions can be performed by coordinated primary or secondary amines after deprotonation. The resulting imines coordinated to cobalt(III) show unusually high stability towards hydrolysis, but are reactive towards carbon nucleophiles. While the cobalt(III) ion produces some iminium character, it occupies the normal site of protonation and is attached to the nitrogen atom by a kinetically inert bond, and thus resists hydrolysis. 

---