Mono and dinuclear complexes of half-sandwich platinum group metals (Ru, Rh and Ir) bearing a flexible pyridyl-thiazole multidentate donor ligand

The mononuclear cationic complexes [(η⁶-C₆H₆)RuCl(L)]⁺ (1), [(η⁶-p-ⁱPrC₆H₄Me)RuCl(L)]⁺ (2), [(η⁵-C₅H₅)Ru(PPh₃)(L)]⁺ (3), [(η⁵-C₅Me₅)Ru(PPh₃)(L)]⁺ (4), [(η⁵-C₅Me₅)RhCl(L)]⁺ (5), [(η⁵-C₅Me₅)IrCl(L)]⁺ (6) as well as the dinuclear dicationic complexes [{(η⁶-C₆H₆)RuCl}₂(L)]²⁺ (7), [{(η⁶-p-ⁱPrC₆H₄Me)RuCl}₂(L)]²⁺ (8), [{(η⁵-C₅H₅)Ru(PPh₃)}2(L)]²⁺ (9), [{(η⁵-C₅Me₅)Ru(PPh₃)}₂(L)]²⁺ (10), [{(η⁵-C₅Me₅)RhCl}₂(L)]²⁺ (11) and [{(η⁵-C₅Me₅)IrCl}₂(L)]²⁺ (12) have been synthesized from 4,4′-bis(2-pyridyl-4-thiazole) (L) and the corresponding complexes [(η⁶-C₆H₆)Ru(μ-Cl)Cl]₂, [(η⁶-p-ⁱPrC₆H₄Me)Ru(μ-Cl)Cl]₂, [(η⁵-C₅H₅)Ru(PPh₃)₂Cl)], [(η⁵-C₅Me₅)Ru(PPh₃)₂Cl], [(η⁵-C₅Me₅)Rh(μ-Cl)Cl]₂ and [(η⁵-C₅Me₅)Ir(μ-Cl)Cl]₂, respectively. All complexes were isolated as hexafluorophosphate salts and characterized by IR, NMR, mass spectrometry and UV-vis spectroscopy. The X-ray crystal structure analyses of [3]PF₆, [5]PF₆, [8](PF₆)₂ and [12](PF₆)₂ reveal a typical piano-stool geometry around the metal centers with a five-membered metallo-cycle in which 4,4′-bis(2-pyridyl-4-thiazole) acts as a N,N′-chelating ligand.