Neutral Molecule Coordination Chemistry

Imidazole is characterized mainly by the T) (N) coordination mode, where N is the nitrogen atom of the pyridine type. The rare coordination modes are T) - (jt-) realized in the ruthenium complexes, I-ti (C,N)- in organoruthenium and organoosmium chemistry. Imidazolium salts and stable 1,3-disubsti-tuted imidazol-2-ylidenes give a vast group of mono-, bis-, and tris-carbene complexes characterized by stability and prominent catalytic activity. Benzimidazole follows the same trends. Biimidazoles and bibenzimidazoles are ligands as the neutral molecules, mono- and dianions. A variety of the coordination situations is, therefore, broad, but there are practically no deviations from the expected classical trends for the mono-, di-, and polynuclear A -complexes. 

The chemistry of coordination compounds comprises an area of chemistry that spans the entire spectrum from theoretical work on bonding to the synthesis of organometallic compounds. The essential feature of coordination compounds is that they involve coordinate bonds between Lewis acids and bases. Metal atoms or ions function as the Lewis acids, and the range of Lewis bases (electron pair donors) can include almost any species that has one or more unshared pairs of electrons. Electron pair donors include neutral molecules such as H20, NH3, CO, phosphines, pyridine, N2, 02, H2, and ethyl-enediamine, (H2NCH2CH2NH2). Most anions, such as OH-, Cl-, C2042-, and 11, contain unshared pairs of electrons that can be donated to Lewis acids to form coordinate bonds. The scope of coordination chemistry is indeed very broad and interdisciplinary. 

Neutralization-reionization mass spectrometry (NRMS) is used to generate neutral species in the gas phase that are difficult to prepare or identify by other methods. During NRMS, both cations and anions may be neutralized, generally by collision, and then reionized to confirm the stability of the neutral species. Two reviews, with particular examples in coordination chemistry, provide good information on this method and offer many examples (76,77). A good example is AuF, which has been predicted to be stable. The [AuF]+ and AuF complexes were both neutralized and reionized and the AuF species was obtained in each recovery signal. It was postulated that the elusiveness of this molecule in the condensed phases was not due to instability but rather to inter-molecular reactions (78). 

Tricoordinated boron compounds (boranes) are coordinatively unsaturated and their chemistry is dominated by reactions in which complexes are formed. These complexes are either neutral molecules (borane complexes), anions (borates) or boron cations. Space limitations mean that little or no attention will be paid to complexes containing several boron atoms and to species of the type L-BH3, [BH,]- and [L2BH2]+ (L = neutral ligand), discussed in detail in several books and reviews. Similarly, little attention will be paid to the plethora of metal borates and the cyclic and polymeric amino- and phosphino-boranes. 

Niobium and tantalum compounds form adducts with virtually all types of neutral ant anionic donors. The coordination chemistry of the higher halides is widely developed, and thei activity as Friedel-Crafts catalysts is another manifestation of their Lewis acidity. The stron acceptor capacity of the high valent metal compounds tends to favor the formation of dimers and sometimes of higher condensation products, which competes with coordination with othe donor molecules. Numerous simple anionic or heteropolyanionic species, but little cationi chemistry, and no simple metal salts, are known. 

Coordination chemistry is, quite simply, the chemistry of coordination compounds. The coordinated groups, called ligands,6 may be neutral molecules or ions. Historically, the accumulation of information and experimental data about these compounds has been a very slow and gradual process. 

This section covers ligands containing the 1,2,3-triazole ring system. These include, in addition to the parent triazole, various N- and/or C-substituted triazoles, benzotri azole, and a number of 8-azapurines. The coordination chemistry of 5-thio-l,2,3,4-thiatriazole is selectively reviewed. All of these molecules, with the exception of the N-substituted triazoles, are capable of coordinating in anionic as well as neutral form. 1,2,3-Triazole, first prepared by von Pechmann in 1888 (215), is a weak acid (p/ a = 9.26) (88) and exists as a mixture of the tautomeric forms (structures la and lb). Benzotriazole (2), first correctly formulated... 

Historically, the concept of coordination chemistry was associated with complexation of a metal cation (Lewis acid) by a ligand behaving as a Lewis base. Such was traditionally the case for macrocyclic molecules as ligands. In the early 1970s, however, the concept of coordination chemistry was extended in the area of macrocyclic chemistry to include molecular cations, neutral molecules and anions as substrates. Complexes of all of these species are to be included in the scope of this chapter section. Examples of the types of substrates are discussed below. 

Receptor chemistry, the chemistry of artificial receptor molecules, represents a generalized coordination chemistry, not limited to transition-metal ions but extending to all types of substrates cationic, anionic, or neutral species of organic, inorganic, or biological nature [1.13]. 

Despite the early discovery of the katapinands, non-covalent anion coordination chemistry was relatively slow to develop in comparison with the development of hosts for cations and even neutral molecules. While it is generally true that anion hosts obey the same rules that govern the magnitude of binding constants and host selectivity in cation hosts (primarily based on preorganisation, complementarity, solvation and size and shape effects), their application is made much more difficult because of some of the intrinsic properties of anions, listed below. 

In this work we have paid attention to the most frequently reported ligand systems from within the enormous number of ligands used in modern coordination chemistry, as reported in the many pieces of literature dedicated to this topic. In the material that follows we have separated inorganic and organic compounds. In general, the data summarized in monographs [1,9] and our previous reviews, [10-17a] forms the basis for the presentation of this work. It must be said that not only neutral molecules are examined throughout, but also anions. Considerable attention is paid to the reviewed literature of the last decade. Due to the synthetic direction of this book, classic theories on the structure of coordination compounds [17b] are not examined here. 

NO is most often a three-electron donor ligand. It can be used as the neutral molecule and in simple coordination chemistry can substitute for CO readily. Usually two NO ligands will displace three CO ligands as in the Fe(CO)5 and Fe(CO)2(NO)2 pair. A common method of producing NO-substituted compounds, however, is not the direct reaction of NO with metal fragments, but rather the use of NO+ salts (BF4 or PF6 are commonly employed) as in Eq. (242).357 For metal carbonylate anions this provides a convenient methodology. Notice that CO is still displaced in these reactions. 

In the evolution of anion coordination chemistry, it was discovered that neutral molecules can also operate as effective receptors for anions provided that they contain polarised N-H fragments (e.g. of amides [53], ureas [54], thioureas [55] or pyrroles [56]), which act as H-bond donors for anions. These receptors cannot compete for hydrogen bonding with water and alcohols and must be studied in aprotic solvents of varying polarity, e.g. CHCI3, MeCN, DMSO. In this vein,... 

An interdisciplinary approach should lead to their future prospects as building blocks of a variety of chemical structures. Thus, betaines 1 can be incorporated as a subunit(s) in host molecules and could confer unusual properties to the supramolecules, either cavitates or clathrates. Their capacity for specific physical behavior should also be considered together with their use as neutral ligands (azolate ligands without counterion) in forming metal complexes. Advances in the chemistry of betaines 1, to be of any real significance, must result from coordinate efforts directed toward supramolecular chemistry, advanced organic materials, and heteroarene coordination chemistry. 

Rhodotorulic acid (RA), a dihydroxamate siderophore, forms dimeric complexes with iron, aluminium and chromium of the stoichiometry M2(RA)3 at neutral pH 36 188). The coordination chemistry of this siderophore is probably the most complicated of the siderophores. The combination of cis-trans, A and A configurations of two iron miters, connected by three RA molecules, makes 42 non-redundant isomers theoretically possible each can be simulated by molecular models. Recently three different isomers or mixtures of isomers of Cr2RA3 were separated by reversed phase HPLC-chromatography177). The visible spectrum of the most abundant fraction corresponds to the cis isomer the two other fractions are very similar to the visible spectrum of the trans Cr(men)3 isomer. The CD spectra, in comparison with the Cr(men)3 model complex, show two different optical isomers, assigned as A -trans and A -trans. The A isomer preparation seems also to contain a certain amount of the A configuration. This is the first time that two different, kinetically stable optical isomers have been isolated from the metal complexes of a siderophore 177). 

For several years, our laboratory has been interested in the chemistry of main group elements in low coordination number environments (7). Some low coordinate species from Group 15 are shown below. They include two-coordinate cations (phosphenium ions), two-coordinate radicals (phosphinyl radicals), as well as stable double-bonded and even triple-bonded neutral molecules. For many years it was thought that... 

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