Influence Of The Bite Angles Of Chelating Diphosphine Ligands In The Chemistry Of Ruthenium Hydride And Dihydrogen Complexes

Abstract

The bite angle of a diphosphine ligand plays an important role in determining the reactivity of a transition metal complex. The coordinated dihydrogen on a transition metal center can be activated toward homolysis or heterolysis depending upon the nature of the metal center and the ancillary ligand environment. The present work deals with our investigations on the effect of the bite angle of the chelating diphosphine ligands in the chemistry of certain ruthenium hydride and dihydrogen complexes.

Protonation of the ds-[Ru(H)2(dppm)(PPh3)2] (dppm = Ph2PCH2PPh2) using HBF4-Et2O resulted in the dihydrogen/hydride complex trans-(Formula). This species shows dynamic exchange of the H-atom between the dihydrogen and the hydride ligands. The H-atom site exchange was studied by NMR spectroscopy. Attempts to prepare the ruthenium dihydride complexes, cis-[Ru(H)2(dppe)(PPh3)2] (dppe = Ph2PCH2CH2PPh2) and cw-[Ru(H)2(dppp)(PPh3)2] (dppp = Ph2PCH2CH2CH2PPh2) with larger bite-angled diphosphines dppe and dppp were unsuccessful.

Earlier work in our group on the effect of trans nitrile ligands in a series of complexes of the type (Formula)howed that the properties of the bound H2 are almost invariant with a change in the R group of the nitrile. hi an effort to compare those results with analogous ruthenium complexes bearing smaller bite-angled diphosphine, dppm, we synthesized and characterized a series of complexes of the type (Formula). We found that the properties of the bound H2 were once again invariant with a change in the R group of the nitrile.

In an effort to compare the effect of having two diphosphine ligands of different bite angles with systems containing symmetrical diphosphine ligands reported by our group,3 we synthesized a series of complexes of the type (Formula). These complexes exhibit hybrid properties in comparison to systems with symmetrical diphosphine ligands in terms of spectroscopic features and chemical reactivity. Thus, the bite angle of the diphosphine ligand has a definite influence on the properties of the bound H2 ligand.