Electron transfer, ligand reducibility

The acetylide anion 3 is likely to form an alkynyl-copper complex by reaction with the cupric salt. By electron transfer the copper-II ion is reduced, while the acetylenic ligands dimerize to yield the -acetylene 2 ... 

Although Cu (aq) is a poor catalyst, it has been established that certain complexes of Cu(II) with a free ligand site can reduce H2O2, i.e. that the electron transfer is inner-sphere in character The rate law depends on the other ligands, e.g. 

Complexes with pyridine-2,6-diimine ligands, five-coordinate [NiX2(174)] (X = C1, Br) or six-coordinate [Ni(174)2]X2, were usually assumed to have innocent neutral ligands. The X-ray structure and spectroscopic characteristics of [Ni(174)2](PF6) confirm that the complex contains the neutral ligand ([174] ) and a divalent nickel ion.579 The cyclic voltamogram of this complex in CH2C12 shows three reversible one-electron-transfer processes at = 1.19 V, —1.30 V, and — 1.82V (vs. Fc+/Fc), of which the first is a one-electron oxidation, while the other two correspond to two successive one-electron reductions. The spectroscopic data allow one to assign these processes as follows ([174]1 is a one-electron reduced radical form of [174] ) [Nini(174)°2]3+ [NiII(174)02]21 - " [NiI(174)°2]+ = " [NiI(174)°(174)1 ]°. 

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