Triferrocenes built on a C3-symmetric ligand platform: entry to redox-active pseudo-triphenylenes via chelation-driven stereoselection of triple Schiff bases

An expedient tandem deprotonation-trapping protocol was employed to prepare a tris(difluoroboronyl) complex of a triferrocenyl ligand that is geometrically analogous to substituted triphenylenes. A triple Schiff base condensation reaction between 1,3,5-triformylphloroglucinol and aminoferrocene afforded the tris(N-salicylideneamine) adducts 5a + 5b in ca. 1:1 ratio. The keto-enamine tautomeric core of this isomeric mixture could be converted to a common enolate-imine intermediate. Subsequent trapping with BF3.Et2O cleanly afforded the tris(difluoroboronyl) adduct 6 in essentially quantitative yield. The electronic and structural properties of this new class of ferrocene compounds were investigated using various methods including UV-vis, cyclic voltammetry (CV), differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), and X-ray crystallography. In CH2Cl2-CH3CN, 6 displayed a reversible three-electron oxidation process at E1/2ox = +210 mV (vs Fc/Fc+). Despite the sharing of a common pi,pi]/n,pi]-conjugated core, no significant electronic communication was observed among the three ferrocenyl units in 6 under either CV or DPV conditions. On the other hand, the broad oxidation wave of 5a + 5b at E1/2ox = +60 mV in CH2Cl2-CH3CN was comprised of at least two major components at +20 and +90 mV, which collapsed to become a single peak in DMF electrolyte, despite that the ratios between the two isomers 5a,b remained essentially invariant to the change in solvent.