Kinetically inert

Rates of Reaction. The rates of formation and dissociation of displacement reactions are important in the practical appHcations of chelation. Complexation of many metal ions, particulady the divalent ones, is almost instantaneous, but reaction rates of many higher valence ions are slow enough to measure by ordinary kinetic techniques. Rates with some ions, notably Cr(III) and Co (III), maybe very slow. Systems that equiUbrate rapidly are termed kinetically labile, and those that are slow are called kinetically inert. Inertness may give the appearance of stabiUty, but a complex that is apparentiy stable because of kinetic inertness maybe unstable in the thermodynamic equihbrium sense. 

The chemistry of Cr(III) in aqueous solution is coordination chemistry (see Coordination compounds). It is dominated by the formation of kineticaHy inert, octahedral complexes. The bonding can be described by Ss]] hybridization, and HteraHy thousands of complexes have been prepared. The kinetic inertness results from the electronic configuration of the Cr ion (41). This type of orbital charge distribution makes ligand displacement and... 

Similarity with cobalt is also apparent in the affinity of Rh and iH for ammonia and amines. The kinetic inertness of the ammines of Rh has led to the use of several of them in studies of the trans effect (p. 1163) in octahedral complexes, while the ammines of Ir are so stable as to withstand boiling in aqueous alkali. Stable complexes such as [M(C204)3], [M(acac)3] and [M(CN)5] are formed by all three metals. Force constants obtained from the infrared spectra of the hexacyano complexes indicate that the M--C bond strength increases in the order Co < Rh < [r. Like cobalt, rhodium too forms bridged superoxides such as the blue, paramagnetic, fCl(py)4Rh-02-Rh(py)4Cll produced by aerial oxidation of aqueous ethanolic solutions of RhCL and pyridine.In fact it seems likely that many of the species produced by oxidation of aqueous solutions of Rh and presumed to contain the metal in higher oxidation states, are actually superoxides of Rh . ... 

A further factor which must also be taken into consideration from the point of view of the analytical applications of complexes and of complex-formation reactions is the rate of reaction to be analytically useful it is usually required that the reaction be rapid. An important classification of complexes is based upon the rate at which they undergo substitution reactions, and leads to the two groups of labile and inert complexes. The term labile complex is applied to those cases where nucleophilic substitution is complete within the time required for mixing the reagents. Thus, for example, when excess of aqueous ammonia is added to an aqueous solution of copper(II) sulphate, the change in colour from pale to deep blue is instantaneous the rapid replacement of water molecules by ammonia indicates that the Cu(II) ion forms kinetically labile complexes. The term inert is applied to those complexes which undergo slow substitution reactions, i.e. reactions with half-times of the order of hours or even days at room temperature. Thus the Cr(III) ion forms kinetically inert complexes, so that the replacement of water molecules coordinated to Cr(III) by other ligands is a very slow process at room temperature. 

Kinetic inertness or lability is influenced by many factors, but the following general observations form a convenient guide to the behaviour of the complexes of various elements. 

Kinetic inertness, evidently caused by the electronic configuration, leads to a remarkable unreactivity of the Rh-H bond to hydrolysis. In the absence of air, it is unaffected by ammonia solution in dilute solution, the ammonia tram to hydride is reversibly replaced by water, showing that the hydride has a trans-effect parallel to its trans-influence. 

The aqua ion Ir(H20) + and halide complexes IrX - have already been mentioned above. The kinetic inertness of the low spin d6 complexes means that hydrolysis of IrClg- is slow complexes up to IrCl2(H20)4 have been produced and separated from mixtures by high-voltage electrophoresis. 

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. 

It will not have escaped the reader s attention that the kinetically inert complexes are those of (chromium(iii)) or low-spin d (cobalt(iii), rhodium(iii) or iridium(iii)). Attempts to rationalize this have been made in terms of ligand-field effects, as we now discuss. Note, however, that remarkably little is known about the nature of the transition state for most substitution reactions. Fortunately, the outcome of the approach we summarize is unchanged whether the mechanism is associative or dissociative. 

The first resolution of an octahedral complex into its enantiomers was achieved in 1911 by A. Werner, who got the Nobel Prize in 1913, with the complex [Co(ethylenediamine)(Cl)(NH3)] [10]. Obviously, resolution is to be considered only in the case of kinetically inert complexes whose enantiomers do not racemize quickly after separation. This is a very important remark since, as noted above, the interesting complexes are those containing exchangeable sites required for catalytic activity and thus more sensitive to racemization. We will not discuss here the very rare cases of spontaneous resolution during which a racemic mixture of complexes forms a conglomerate (the A and A enantiomers crystallize in separate crystals) [11,12]. 

The sandwich complex [Ni(tacn)2]2+ (555) is known as a kinetically inert, thermodynamically stable system. Functionalized tacn ligands with innocent alkyl substituents like, for... 

The kinetic inertness of fPtCl6] the addition of SnCl2.79,2 5 After... 

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