Non-Innocent Complexes with β-Diiminate Ligands

Non-Innocent Complexes with β-Diiminate Ligands

Author: Joseph D. Unsay

Redox-active ligands, also called non-innocent ligands, participate in electron-transfer processes. This makes them particularly interesting for synthetic chemistry. Such ligands are often found in enzymes as redox equivalents. Although they have been studied extensively, the design of non-innocent ligands that are able to undergo multiple-electron transfer processes at low, accessible potentials is still challenging.

Robertus J. M. Klein Gebbink, Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and colleagues have synthesized transition metal complexes bearing a β-diiminate ligand, BMIMPh2 (examples pictured). Using electrochemical techniques, the team showed that BMIMPh2– complexes can undergo four reversible single-electron oxidations, which are all ligand-based.

 

The researchers have also synthesized and crystallized single- and di-oxidized complexes (pictured above). Unlike similar complexes with β-diketiminate-type (NacNac) ligands, the structural changes for these oxidized complexes are observable via X-ray crystallography.


 

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