Amidinato and triazenido complexes of ruthenium(II): X-ray crystal structure of the N, N′-diphenylformamidine fragmentation product [RuCl(NH 2Ph){PhNC(H)NPh}(Me 2SO) 2

Abstract

N, N′-Diphenylamidines, PhNC(R)NHPh (R=H, Me, Et, Ph), and 1,3-diaryltriazenes, ArNNNHAr (Ar= p-C 6H 4X, X=H, Cl, Me, OMe) react with ruthenium(II) complexes, [RuCl 2(C 7H 8)] n , [RuCl 2(CO) 2] n and [RuCl 2(Me 2SO) 4] in the presence of a base (NEt 3 or Na 2CO 3) to afford a selection of bis(chelate) products [Ru{PhNC(R)NPh} 2L 2] and [Ru(ArNNNAr) 2L 2] (L=CO, Me 2SO; L 2=C 7H 8). In contrast one particular combination — [RuCl 2(Me 2SO) 4]/PhNC(H)NHPh/NEt 3 — in refluxing dimethylformamide yields a novel amidine fragmentation product [RuCl(NH 2Ph){PhNC(H)NPh}(Me 2SO) 2] which has been characterised by X-ray diffraction methods.