Ruthenium complexed with bipyridine ligands

Ruthenium square species where the bridging ligands are in cis positions were also obtained by the authors, starting from the [RuCl2(dppb)PPh3] complex with alterdentate ligands such as pyrazine, 4,4 -bipyridine and l,2-bis-trans-(4-pyridyl)-ethylene (Fig. 14.20) [68]. 

Haukka and Pakkanen found that modification of silica-impregnated ruthenium complexes with a mono-bipyridine (bpy) ligand also gives active catalysts for the... 

There are more examples of a second type in which the chirality of the metal center is the result of the coordination of polydentate ligands. The easiest case is that of octahedral complexes with at least two achiral bidentate ligands coordinated to the metal ion. The prototype complex with chirality exclusively at the metal site is the octahedral tris-diimine ruthenium complex [Ru(diimine)3 with diimine = bipyridine or phenanthroline. As shown in Fig. 2 such a complex can exist in two enantiomeric forms named A and A [6,7]. The bidentate ligands are achiral and the stereoisomery results from the hehcal chirality of the coordination and the propeller shape of the complex. The absolute configuration is related to the handness of the hehx formed by the hgands when rotated... 

Scheme 3 shows the details of the synthetic strategy adopted for the preparation of heteroleptic cis- and trans-complexes. Reaction of dichloro(p-cymene)ruthenium(II) dimer in ethanol solution at reflux temperature with 4,4,-dicarboxy-2.2 -bipyridine (L) resulted the pure mononuclear complex [Ru(cymene)ClL]Cl. In this step, the coordination of substituted bipyridine ligand to the ruthenium center takes place with cleavage of the doubly chloride-bridged structure of the dimeric starting material. The presence of three pyridine proton environments in the NMR spectrum is consistent with the symmetry seen in the solid-state crystal structure (Figure 24). 

Several ruthenium complexes bearing chiral Schiff s base ligands have been published. RuL(PPh3)(H20)2], complex C (Fig. 11), with PhIO produced (S)-styrene oxide in 80% ee [61]. Chiral Schiff s base complex D was examined using molecular oxygen with aldehyde, with or without 2,6-dichloropyridine N-oxide as an axial ligand. Styrene oxide was produced in up to 24% ee[62]. A chiral bis(oxazolinyl)pyridine ruthenium complex E with iodosylbenzene diacetate PhI(OAc)2 produced (lS,2S)-fra s-stilbene oxide in 74% ee [63]. Similarly, chiral ruthenium bis(bipyridine) sulfoxide complex F [64] was effective in combination with PhI(OAc)2 as an oxidant and resulted in in 33% ee for (R,R) trans-stilbene oxide and 94% ee for (R,R) trans-/i-Me-styrene (after 75 h at 25 °C). 

Thus one can expect that the copper complexes with 2,2 -bipyridine, 1,10-phenanthroline, and their derivatives are successfully applied to asymmetric photoreactions, as with chiral ruthenium(II) complexes, if the optically active moiety is introduced to the ligand, as discussed above (see introduction). 

In related model complex studies, Isied and coworkers, have examined photo-induced (or pulse-radiolytically initiated) electron-transfer processes in which a polypyridine-ruthenium(II) complex is linked by means of a 4-carboxylato,4 -methyl,2,2 -bipyridine ligand and a polyproline chain to a [Co(NH3)5] + or [(-NH-py)Ru (NH3)5] acceptor. Chains composed of from zero to six cis-prolines have been examined. The apparent distance dependence of the electron-transfer rate constant, corrected for variations in the solvent reorganizational energy, seems to exhibit two types of distance dependence, 0.7-1A for short chains and /3 a0.3 A for long chains. A very detailed theoretical analysis of electron transfer in the complexes with four proline linkers has indicated that the electronic coupling is sensitive to conformational variations within the proline chain. ... 

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