Metals square-planar

The cyanide exchange on [M(CN)4]2 with M = Pt, Pd, and Ni is a rare case in which mechanistic comparisons between 3d, 4d, and 5d transition-metal complexes. Surprisingly, the behavior of these metal square-planar centers leads to mechanistic diversity involving pentacoordinated species or transition states as well as protonated complexes. The reactivities of these species are strongly pH-dependent, covering 15 orders of magnitude in reaction rates.85... 

Figure 4. Linear stacks of transition metal square planar complexes with organic ligands. Left uniformly spaced no significant interactions.

Transition metal square-planar complexes generally contain eight d electrons and are almost always diamagnetic. This includes complexes of Pt, Pd % Au, Rh, and Ir. While such complexes can imdergo other reactions such as redox processes, we shall focus on substitution reactions. Good reviews of square-planar substitution reactions are available. The following is a summary of some of these substitution processes, wifli emphasis on those involved with polymer formation. These substitution reactions are the most widely studied of the transition metal square-planar complex reactions. 

V S, C M Kelly and C R Landis 1991. SHAPES Empirical Force-Field - New Treatment of igular Potentials and Its Application to Square-Planar Transition-Metal Complexes. Journal of American Chemical Society 113 1-12. 

Gold Compounds. The chemistry of nonmetallic gold is predominandy that of Au(I) and Au(III) compounds and complexes. In the former, coordination number two and linear stereochemistry are most common. The majority of known Au(III) compounds are four coordinate and have square planar configurations. In both of these common oxidation states, gold preferably bonds to large polarizable ligands and, therefore, is termed a class b metal or soft acid. 

For many species the effective atomic number (FAN) or 18- electron rule is helpful. Low spin transition-metal complexes having the FAN of the next noble gas (Table 5), which have 18 valence electrons, are usually inert, and normally react by dissociation. Fach normal donor is considered to contribute two electrons the remainder are metal valence electrons. Sixteen-electron complexes are often inert, if these are low spin and square-planar, but can undergo associative substitution and oxidative-addition reactions. 

Figure 27-10 Anhydrous acetates of Pd" and Pt" (a) trimeric [Pd(02CMe)2h involving square-planar coordinated Pd but no metal-metal bonding (average Pd -Pd = 315pm), and (b) tetrameric [Pt(02CMc)2]4 involving octahedrally coordinated Pt and metal-metal bonds (average Pt-Pi = 249.5 pm). llie four bridging ligands in the Pt,j plane are much more labile than the others.

For gold, by contrast, - -3 is the element s best-known oxidation state and Au is often compared with the isoelectronic Pt (p. 1161). The usual route to gold(III) chemistry is by dissolving the metal in aqua regia, or the compound AU2CI6 in cone HCl, after which evaporation yields yellow chloroauric acid, HAUCI4.4H2O, from which numerous salts of the square-planar ion [AuCLj]" can be obtained. 

Geometry of four-coordinate complexes. Complexes in which the central metal has a coordination number of 4 may be tetrahedral or square planar. 

Two or more species with different physical and chemical properties but the same formula are said to be isomers of one another. Complex ions can show many different kinds of isomerism, only one of which we will consider. Geometric isomers are ones that differ only in the spatial orientation of ligands around the central metal atom. Geometric isomerism is found in square planar and octahedral complexes. It cannot occur in tetrahedral complexes where all four positions are equivalent... 

Wohrle, D. Polymer Square Planar Metal Chelates for Science and Industry. Synthesis, Properties and Applications. Vol. 50, pp. 45— 134. 

All A2MH4 contain square planar MH4- units, but at high temperatures the A2MH4 salts adopt the K2PtCl6 structure with hydrogens able to move between different square planar orientations. M2PdH2 (M = Li, Na) compounds have metallic lustre and display metallic conductivity [40]. 

However, it seems that these are best viewed as platinum(II) species too, so that two-electron metal-to-ligand transfer has been effected. The structures of Pt(PPh3)2Z (Z = r]2-02, t 2-C3H4, t]2-CS2) (Figure 3.16) all involve square planar coordination as expected for platinum(II) rather than the tetrahedral 4-coordination anticipated for platinum(O). 

There is significant metal-metal bonding in the platinum compound, whose geometry involves a square of platinum atoms another important difference is that the coordination geometry is square planar in palladium acetate but octahedral in the platinum analogue. Different oligomers exist in solution, broken down by adduct formation. Palladium(II) acetate may be obtained as brown crystals from the following reaction [65] ... 

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