Cobalt planar complexes

Splitting of d-orbitals in square planar complexes of copper(II), nickel(II) and cobalt(II). Y. Nishida andS. Kida, Coord. Chem. Rev., 1979, 27, 275-298 (94). 

As already mentioned, complexes of chromium(iii), cobalt(iii), rhodium(iii) and iridium(iii) are particularly inert, with substitution reactions often taking many hours or days under relatively forcing conditions. The majority of kinetic studies on the reactions of transition-metal complexes have been performed on complexes of these metal ions. This is for two reasons. Firstly, the rates of reactions are comparable to those in organic chemistry, and the techniques which have been developed for the investigation of such reactions are readily available and appropriate. The time scales of minutes to days are compatible with relatively slow spectroscopic techniques. The second reason is associated with the kinetic inertness of the products. If the products are non-labile, valuable stereochemical information about the course of the substitution reaction may be obtained. Much is known about the stereochemistry of ligand substitution reactions of cobalt(iii) complexes, from which certain inferences about the nature of the intermediates or transition states involved may be drawn. This is also the case for substitution reactions of square-planar complexes of platinum(ii), where study has led to the development of rules to predict the stereochemical course of reactions at this centre. 

Tinnemans et al.132 have examined the photo(electro)chemical and electrochemical reduction of C02 using some tetraazamacrocyclic Co(II) and Ni(II) complexes as catalysts. CO and H2 were the products. Pearce and Pletcher133 have investigated the mechanism of the reduction of C02 in acetonitrile-water mixtures by using square planar complexes of nickel and cobalt with macrocyclic ligands in solution as catalysts. CO was the reduction product with no significant amounts of either formic or oxalic acids... 

Macrocyclic Fi-donor ligands and vitamin Bj, analogues. The free amine [(97) tet] can be prepared from the previously reported nickel complex. Cobalt-fin) complexes have been prepared with both planar (bcde octahedral) and folded (abed octahedral) co-ordination. Derivatives of the three ligand configurations arising from restricted inversion at the four chiral co-ordinated secondary amino-groups have been prepared (see Scheme 2) and their stabilities and configurations discussed. ... 

Numerous d cobalt(III) complexes are known and have been studied extensively. Most of these complexes are octahedral in shape. Tetrahedral, planar and square antiprismatic complexes of cobalt(lII) are also known, but there are very few. The most common ligands are ammonia, ethylenediamine and water. Halide ions, nitro (NO2) groups, hydroxide (OH ), cyanide (CN ), and isothiocyanate (NCS ) ions also form Co(lII) complexes readily. Numerous complexes have been synthesized with several other ions and neutral molecular hgands, including carbonate, oxalate, trifluoroacetate and neutral ligands, such as pyridine, acetylacetone, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), dimethylformamide, tetrahydrofuran, and trialkyl or arylphosphines. Also, several polynuclear bridging complexes of amido (NHO, imido (NH ), hydroxo (OH ), and peroxo (02 ) functional groups are known. Some typical Co(lll) complexes are tabulated below ... 

The unsymmetrical nature of / -mercaptoethylamine should lead to geometric isomerism among its metal complexes, cis and trans isomers might be expected with the square planar nickel (II) and palladium (II) derivatives and facial and peripheral isomers with cobalt (III). However, during the course of the preparation of various samples in which the procedure and experimental conditions were varied, no evidence of such isomerism was apparent (6, 15). This is particularly evident in the case of the cobalt (III) complex, CoL3. Samples prepared by the addition of cobalt (II) chloride 6-hydrate to strongly basic aqueous solution of the ligand and by displacement of ammonia and (ethylenedinitrilo)-... 

Later reports (58) have questioned whether the earlier report (55) was correct in concluding that the planar cobalt(II) complex of salen was formed in zeolite Y. The characteristics of the supposedly zeolite-entrapped [Con(salen)] are apparently not as similar to the same species in solution as previously reported. For example, planar [Con(salen)] and its adducts with axially disposed bases are generally ESR-detect-able low-spin complexes (59), and cyclic voltammetry of the entrapped complex revealed a Co3+/Co2+ redox transition that is absent in solution (60). These data, and more recent work (58), indicate that, in the zeolite Y environment, [Con(salen)] is probably not a planar system. Further, the role of pyridine in the observed reactivity with dioxygen is unclear, since, once the pyridine ligand is bound to the cobalt center, it is doubtful that the complex could actually even fit in the zeolite Y cage. The lack of planarity may account for the differences in properties between [Con(salen)] entrapped in zeolite Y and its properties in solution. 

Trigonal planar Cr atoms, isomorphous cobalt(ni) complex (Werner s brown salt), racemic A(AAA)/A AAA ... 

In terms of the development of an understanding of the reactivity patterns of inorganic complexes, the two metals which have been pivotal are platinum and cobalt. This importance is to a large part a consequence of each metal having available one or more oxidation states which are kinetically inert. Platinum is a particularly useful element of this pair because it has two kinetically inert sets of complexes (divalent and tetravalent) in addition to the complexes of platinum(O), which is a kinetically labile center. The complexes of divalent and tetravalent platinum show significant differences. Divalent platinum forms four-coordinate planar complexes which have a coordinately unsaturated 16-electron d8 platinum center, whereas tetravalent platinum is an 18-electron d6 center which is coordinately saturated in its usual hexacoordination. In terms of mechanistic interpretation one must therefore consider both associative and dissociative substitution pathways, in addition to mechanisms involving electron transfer or inner-sphere atom transfer redox processes. A number of books and articles have been written about replacement reactions in platinum complexes, and a number of these are summarized in Table 13. 

The dynamics of spin equilibria in solution are rapid. The slowest rates are those for coordination-spin equilibria, in which bonds are made and broken even these occur in a few microseconds. The fastest are the AS = 1 transitions of octahedral cobalt(II) complexes, in which the population of the e a antibonding orbital changes by only one electron these appear to occur in less than a nanosecond. For intramolecular interconversions without a coordination number change, the rates decrease as the coordination sphere reorganization increases. Thus the AS = 2 transitions of octahedral iron(II) and iron(III) are slower than the AS = 1 transitions of cobalt(II), and the planar-tetrahedral equilibria of nickel(II) are slower again, with lifetimes of about a microsecond. 

There are a few examples of spin equilibria with other metal ions which have not been mentioned above. In cobalt(III) chemistry there exist some paramagnetic planar complexes in equilibrium with the usual diamagnetic octahedral species (22). The equilibria are the converse of the diamagnetic-planar to paramagnetic-octahedral equilibria which occur with nickel(II). Their interconversions are also presumably adiabatic. Preliminary observations indicate relaxation times of tens of microseconds, consistent with slower ligand substitution on a metal ion in the higher (III) oxidation state (120). 

Among several chiral cyclic and acyclic diamines, (R,R)-cyclohexane-l,2-diamine-derived salen ligand (which can adopt the gauche conformation) was most effective in providing high enantioselectivity [38]. Further, the introduction of substituents at the 3,4, 5 and 6 positions on the aromatic ring of catalyst 39c was not advantageous, and resulted in low enantioselectivity [32,37,39]. The metal ions from first-row transition metals - particularly copper(II) and cobalt(II) - that could form square-planar complexes, produced catalytically active complexes for the asymmetric alkylation of amino ester enolates [38]. 

It is generally accepted that the ICC of nickel, copper, and ruthenium, on the basis of ligands of type 426, have trans-planar configuration 427, while a tetrahedral polyhedron is characteristic for cobalt and zinc chelates [270,401,751-754], It was also accepted that a cis-planar configuration for ICC of o-hydroxyazo compounds and chelates of o-hydroxyazomethines in 422 (R = Aik, Ar, Het) is not likely or, at best, only scarcely possible. However, a cis-planar complex 428 has recently been prepared and characterized [755] ... 

The bivalent metals, as usual, combine with two molecules of biguanide to form 4-coordinated planar complexes, while the trivalent cobalt and chromium combine with three molecules of the ligand to produce a 6-coordinated octahedral configuration. The only exception is the trivalent silver which yields, however, a 4-coordinated planar complex. The preparation of the free tris(biguanidato) chromium, Cr(C2N5H6)s, in the anhydrous state,6 as well as of the corresponding anhydrous cobalt(III),8 copper(II), cobalt(II), palladium(II), and nickel(II) compounds, provides indisputable evidence for the structure proposed. Similar anhydrous metallic complexes with numerous substituted biguanides also have been included in the above-mentioned studies. 

The existence of a tetracyanocobaltate(II) ion in aqueous solution has been inferred from studies at high dilution and a brown polymeric complex of composition K2[Co(CN)4] has been isolated from solutions of [Co(SCN)2] and KCN in ammonia.20 Recently, the monomeric air-sensitive complex [(PPh3)2N]2[Co(CN)4] DMF has been crystallized from DMF solution.29 The complex is essentially square planar but does feature a very weak axial interaction to a neighbouring DMF molecule (Co—O separation 264 pm). The [Co(CN)4]2 anion appears to be the sole example of a square-planar low-spin (ji = 2.15 BM) cobalt(II) complex containing solely unidentate ligands. 

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