O-Demethylation reaction at a diruthenium core: synthesis and structural study of two novel diruthenium compounds

Abstract

The reaction between Ru 2(OAc) 4Cl and di( o-methoxyphenyl)formamidine led to the unexpected products trans-Ru 2(O 2CCH 3) 2(μ- N, N′- η 2- N, O- o-MeOForm)(μ- N, N′- η 2- N, O- o-MeOForm′) ( 1) and Ru 2(O 2CCH 3)(μ- N, N′- o-MeOForm)(μ- N, N′- η 2- N, O- o-MeOForm)(μ- N, N′- η 2- N, O- o-MeOForm′) ( 2), where o-MeOForm is di( o-methoxyphenyl)formamidinate, and o-MeOForm′ is the O-demethylation derivative of o-MeOForm, ( o-methoxyphenyl)( o-oxyphenyl)formamidinate. Both compounds 1 and 2 were structurally characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis, and are isoelectronic with the previously studied chloro-tetracarboxylatodiruthenium(II,III) and chlorotetrakis(diarylformamidinato)diruthenium(II,III) on the basis of structural and magnetic data.