Abstract:
The aim of this study was to synthesise and structurally characterise new nitrido complexes, and investigate how nitrido ligands affect the geometry and other aspects of the synthesized complexes.
Using the strongly basic nitrido ligand of [(Ph3As)2Cl3OsN], it was possible to break the chloro bridges of Lewis acids of the form [µ-ClMLx] and thus synthesise three novel nitrido bridged complexes, the first two, [(Ph3As)2Cl3OsN-RhCl(COD)] and [(Ph3As)2Cl3OsN-IrCl(COD)] are isostructural, air stable, and both crystallise in the monoclinic space group Cc. Both have almost linear asymmetric nitrido bridges of the form OsN-M', with the octahedral structure of the [(Ph3As)2Cl3OsN] starting material preserved in the bridged compound. The third nitrido complex synthesised was [(H2O)Cl4OsN-IrClCp*(Ph3As)].(H2O). This air stable compound crystallises in the monoclinic space group Cm.
The nitrido complexes in the second part of this study were synthesised using the starting material [(Ph3Sb)2OsNCl3] as a building block. Crystals from this complex were obtained, and structurally analysed. Unfortunately it was only possible to determine the dimensions of the unit cell and to confirm that the stibane ligands are arranged in trans- position to one another. However, using [(Ph3Sb)2OsNCl3], it was possible to synthesise two novel nitrido bridged compounds.
[(Ph3Sb)2Cl3OsN-IrCl(COD)] was synthesised in an identical fashion to the above mentioned [(Ph3As)2Cl3OsN-IrCl(COD)], and crystallises in the triclinic space group P-1. The stibane ligands are mutually cis- to one another, in contrast to the trans- arrangement of the stibane ligands in the starting material [(Ph3Sb)2OsNCl3]. The second compound, [(Ph3Sb)Cl4OsN-IrClCp*(Ph3Sb)] crystallises in the triclinic space group P-1. A two way migration occurs, with a chlorine ligand leaving the iridium for the osmium centre, and a stibane ligand migrating from the osmium to the iridium.