Structural and theoretical investigations of the Rh(III) and Co(III) complexes containing symmetrical edta-type ligands with mixed carboxylate and diamine rings: Quantum-mechanical/NBO insight into stability of geometrical isomers

Abstract

The trans(O5O6) isomer of the Na[Rh(eddadp)]·4H2O and the K[Co(eddadp)]·3H2O (eddadp = ethylenediamine-N,N′-diacetate-N,N′-di-3-propionate) were synthesized and Na[Rh(eddadp)]·4H2O structure was confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis. The percentage of particular isomers found in reaction equilibrium mixtures of [M(eddadp)]− complex has been reported. Single crystal X-ray diffraction of the complex revealed an octahedral geometry of the Rh(III) centre. Improved structural distortion analysis of M(III) (M = Rh, Co) complexes with symmetric edta-type of ligands containing mixed carboxylate and diamine rings was made. Structural distortion analysis has determined high values of total deviation of the octahedral angles (Δ(Oh)) for both existing trans(O5) (34°) and trans(O5O6) (41°) isomers of [Rh(eddadp)]− complex, while in the case of a similar Co(III) complex, relatively low value (31°) for trans(O5) has been established. Extensive QM/NBO calculations were made for both systems [M(eddadp)]− and [M(1,3-pddadp)]− using different DFT methods (B3LYP/SDD, M06/SDD, MP2/SDD). By correlating the structural parameters obtained from X-ray and DFT optimized 3D structures, the B3LYP/SDD method was used as the method of choice. Based on the correlation between the energies of the optimized systems and the strain parameters, the existence of the trans(O6) isomer of the [Rh(1,3-pddadp)]− complex was predicted. NRT (Natural Resonance Theory) analysis gave the best resonances for each isomer. Here the stability of particular isomer has been described in terms of 3-CHB bonds involving metal ions and Second Order Perturbation Theory analysis using Donor/Acceptor energies. Further, to explain the bonding nature of M-edta-type complexes the Natural Coulomb Electrostatics (NCE) analysis has been done as well. The pairwise steric exchange interaction EI,Jpwx results obtained for the best-ranked resonances of different isomers are in excellent agreement with favored isomers reported so far. For the energy limit of the possibility of forming geometric isomers, a value of about 6 kcal mol−1 is proposed.