Structure of a dinickel(II)-dithiolate bridged macrocyclic complex synthesised via a novel solvent-assisted disulfide cleavage reaction

Abstract

The reaction of 2,6-diformyl-4-methylphenyl disulfide with [Ni(tn)3]Cl2 (tn = 1,3-diaminopropane), in methanol and in the presence of NaBPh4 resulted in the isolation of [Ni2(L1)](DMF)2(BPh4)2 (I), (L1 = 15,95-dimethyl-3,7,11,15-tetraaza-1,9(1,3)-dibenzenacyclohexadecaphane-2,7,10,15-tetraene-12,92-bis(thiolate). This reaction represents a 2-electron solvent assisted reduction of the disulfide bond to form two thiolate ligands where methanol is converted to formaldehyde and the two nickel centres remained in the + 2 oxidation state. The crystal structure of I showed the two nickel(II) atoms are bridged by two thiolates in a binuclear Ni2S2 core inside of a macrocyclic framework. The IR spectrum showed a band at 1625 cm−1, assigned to the imine ν(C N) stretch of the macrocyclic ligand, and bands at 734, 706 cm−1, are assigned to the tetraphenylborate counter ions. This is the first example of solvent assisted SS bond cleavage being used to prepare a dicompartmental macrocyclic complex.