Electrolytic preparation of an isomer pair of cobalt (III) mixed complexes

Abstract

The electrolytic preparation of some coordination compounds of cobalt (III), such as the amino-, sulphato- and acetato-complexes, had already been described [1–5]: the presence of the ligand in the electrolysed solution stabilizes the + 3 oxidation state of cobalt, which is generated anodically. All the cobalt (III) complexes prepared up to date by electrochemical methods contain various numbers of the same ligand group, without having regard to the coordinated water molecules. In this note we deal with the electrolytic preparation of two mixed complexes of cobalt (III),cis- andtrans-[Co en2 (OCOCH3)2]ClO4, where en=ethylenediamine.