Osmium related ligands

Furthermore, the utilization of preformed films of polypyrrole functionalized by suitable monomeric ruthenium complexes allows the circumvention of problems due to the moderate stability of these complexes to aerial oxidation when free in solution. A similar CO/HCOO-selectivity with regards to the substitution of the V-pyrrole-bpy ligand by an electron-with-drawing group is retained in those composite materials.98 The related osmium-based redox-active polymer [Os°(bpy)(CO)2] was prepared, and is also an excellent electrocatalyst for the reduction of C02 in aqueous media.99 However, the selectivity toward CO vs. HCOO- production is lower. 

Some striking demonstrations of metal-metal bond lability are provided by cluster rearrangements due to protonation. This is the case for some anionic osmium clusters (cf. Section VI). It involves ligand activation for some tetrairon clusters (51-53). Thus, the clusters 9 and 11 open up upon protonation, and compensation for the lost iron - iron bonds in the products 10 and 12 comes from the bonding between one iron atom and a carbonyl oxygen. The relation of these unusual nucleophile-electrophile interactions to cluster-induced CO transformations is obvious. 

Some interesting chemistry has appeared relating to the ability of the isocyanide ligand to stabilize unusual oxidation states. A series of palladium metal - metal bonded complexes has been synthesized by redox reactions involving two metal complexes in different formal oxidation states (33 -35). Similar ruthenium(I) and osmium(I) dimers have been prepared by an unusual homolytic fission of a ruthenium-carbon bond (36) or by singleelectron oxidation of Os(CNXylyl)5 (18). 

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