Coordination compounds electronic spectra

The divalent Co(salen) complex (69a) is one of the most versatile and well-studied Co coordination compounds. It has a long and well-documented history and we shall not restate this here. Recent applications of (69a) as both a synthetic oxygen carrier and as a catalyst for organic transformations are described in Sections 6.1.3.1.2 and 6.1.4.1 respectively. Isotropic shifts in the HNMR spectrum of low-spin Co(salphn) (69b) were investigated in deuterated chloroform, DMF, DMSO, and pyridine.319 Solvent-dependent isotropic shifts indicate that the single unpaired electron, delocalized over the tetradentate 7r-electron system in CHCI3, is an intrinsic property of the planar four-coordinate complex. The high-spin/low-spin equilibrium of the... 

As with the nitroxalkylcobalamins (119) and cobinamides, the co-binamides in which nitroxide is coordinated show electron spin resonance spectra very similar to the spectrum of free nitroxide. The high field line is not broadened as much as in the spectrum of a nitroxalkyl-cobinamide. No hyperfine splitting from methyl protons in the 2 or 6 positions can be observed for the bound nitroxide. However, treatment of the coordinate spin labeled compounds with cyanide releases the nitroxide. When this happens, the proton hyperfine can be observed (Fig. 25). Thus treatment with cyanide simply displaces the nitroxide and a spectrum for free nitroxide is observed. 

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. 

The products isolated from reactions of amides with transition metal halides usually contain coordinated halide (e.g. the formulations in Table 2). In some cases such as [Co(NMF)6][CoCLt], halide and amide are coordinated to different metal atoms, but when such compounds are dissolved in the neat ligand, halide can be replaced and at high dilution all the metal ions may be fully coordinated by the amide alone. The electronic spectrum resulting when this cobalt complex is dissolved in nitromethane has been interpreted as relating solely to the tetrahedral complex [CoC12(NMF)2]. 

Electronic spectra may be used (as in organic chemistry) as fingerprints, and they are very important in kinetic studies. The change in the electronic spectrum of a reaction mixture as the reaction proceeds is often the best way of following its rate, and quite elaborate methods are available for measuring very fast reaction rates. However, the application which the reader is most likely to encounter in more advanced texts is in the area of coordination compounds of the transition elements, whose electronic spectra may yield information about structure and bonding. 

The circular dichroism (which may be more readily analysed than optical rotatory dispersion) of the prototype resolved coordination compound (+)-[Co(en)3]3+ is shown in Fig. 3. The very similar electronic spectrum of [Co(NHs) 6]3+ (with point group O in the ground state) is known to arise from the transitions 1A g XTig (at lower energy) and... 

The majority of electronic transitions in molecules occur in the UV region of the spectrum because the energy separations of electron states typically correspond to the energies of photons in the UV region. However, some molecules have electronic energy separations that correspond to radiation in the visible region (see Fig. 12.3). One such class of compounds includes the coordination compounds that contain transition metal ions (see Section 20.6). 

It is extremely common for coordination compounds also to exhibit strong charge-transfer absorptions, typically in the ultraviolet and/or visible portions of the spectrum. These absorptions may be much more intense than d-d transitions (which for octahedral complexes usually have e values of 20 L moF cm or less) molar absorp-tivities of 50,000 L mole cm or greater are not uncommon for these bands. Such absorption bands involve the transfer of electrons from molecular orbitals that are primarily ligand in character to orbitals that are primarily metal in character (or vice versa). For example, consider an octahedral d complex with cr-donor ligands. The ligand electron pairs are stabilized, as shown in Figure 11-15. 

The complex nitrate spectrum can be partially analysed by using oxygen-18 shifts [34], in the manner described in Section 2.2. But there is an additional useful feature. The vibronic structure includes internal modes of the nitrate ions. These modes have nitrogen-15 shifts which identify them unambiguously [35]. The frequencies of these modes in coordination compounds are well-established so the optical frequencies can be used to determine the energy of the pure electronic transition to which they are coupled, while the polarisation of the vibronic spectrum constrains the choice of the electronic symmetry. 

Luminescent coordination compounds continue to attract considerable attention. Zink recently reported a new mixed-ligand copper(I) polymer that shows interesting photoluminescence (232). The complex [CuCl(L44)Ph3P] consists of a one-dimensional chain lattice of metal ions bridged by both Cl" ions and pyrazine molecules. The compound shows conductivity of less than 10-8 S cm 1. The absorption spectrum of the complex shows a band at 495 nm, which could be interpreted as the promotion of an electron from the valence band to the conduction band. On the basis of resonance Raman spectra, the lowest excited state in the polymer is assigned to the Cu(I)-to-pyrazine metal-to-ligand charge-transfer excited state. 

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