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

Abstract

The reaction between Ru2(OAc)4Cl and di(o-methoxyphenyl)formamidine led to the unexpected products trans-Ru2(O2CCH3)2(μ-N,N′-η2-N,O-o-MeOForm)(μ-N,N′-η2-N,O-o-MeOForm′) (1) and Ru2(O2CCH3)(μ-N,N′-o-MeOForm)(μ-N,N′-η2-N,O-o-MeOForm)(μ-N,N′-η2-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.