Formation and Dissociation of Tetrahedral Nickel(II) and Cobalt(II) Complexes of ‘Dithioimidodiphosphato’ Ligands,Measurement of Kinetically Determined Stability Constants,and Kinetic Investigations of the Rapid Formation of Tetrahedral Bis(ligand)copper(II) Complexes and Their Rates of Reduction to Trinuclear Copper(I) Species

The stopped‐flow technique was used to measure the rates of formation and dissociation of tetrahedral ML₂] complexes (M²⁺=Ni²⁺ or Co²⁺) of four bidentate S₂‐donor ‘dithioimidodiphosphato’ ligands L^? (HL=R¹R²P(?S)]NHP(?S)R³R⁴], R¹ to R⁴=alkyl) at 25.0° in MeOH/H₂O 95 : 5 (v/v) solution and in the presence of either MOPS (=3‐(morpholin‐4‐yl)propane‐1‐sulfonic acid) or 2,6‐lutidine (=2,6‐dimethylpyridine) buffers. The kinetically determined equilibrium formation constants for ML]⁺ ions (M=Ni or Co) are 10^?5 K=0.50±0.01 or 1.64±0.07 l mol^?1 for L=L³ (R¹=R²=Me(CH₂)₂CH(Me), R³=R⁴=Me₂CH), 1.27±0.02 or 7.93±0.09 l mol^?1 for L=L⁷ (R¹ to R⁴=Me₂CHCH₂), 0.88±0.04 or 3.84±0.13 l mol^?1 for L=L⁸ (R¹ to R⁴=Me₂CH), and in case of Ni²⁺ 1.88±0.04 l mol^?1 for L=L⁶ (R¹=R³=Bu, R²=R⁴=^tBu) (see Table 3; for L³ and L⁶–L⁸, see Table 1). Whereas the tetrahedral Ni²⁺ complexes dissociate more slowly than the analogous Co²⁺ species, in all cases, the Co²⁺ complexes are more stable than those of Ni²⁺ due to their larger formation rate constants (Table 3). Reactions of Cu²⁺ with eight ligands HL (R¹ to R⁴=alkyl, alkoxy, aryl, and aryloxy) show that formation of intensely colored tetrahedral Cu^IIL₂] species is too fast be measured with the available stopped‐flow apparatus (t_1/2<2 ms), but the subsequent rates of reduction of Cu^IIL₂] to give trinuclear products Cu^I₃L₃] are measurable. An X‐ray analysis establishes the structure of one of the Cu₃L₃] complexes, where R¹=R²=Me₂CHO and R³=R⁴=2‐(tert‐butyl)phenyl (L=L⁵), and a multiwavelength stopped‐flow kinetic experiment establishes the spectrum of a tetrahedral Cu^IIL₂] species prior to the reduction reactions. The redox reactions proceed at 25.0° with first‐order rate constants in the range 0.285 s^?1 (R¹ to R⁴=PhO; L=L¹¹) to 2.58?10^?4 s^?1 (R¹ to R⁴=Me₂CHCH₂; L=L⁷) (Table 4).