Transfer hydrogenation via generation of hydride intermediate and base-free alcohol oxidation activity studies on designed ruthenium complexes derived from NNN pincer type ligands

Ruthenium complexes( 1 – 3 ) have been synthesized using pincer-type ligands L¹ = (E)-2-((2-phenyl-2-(pyridin-2-yl)hydrazono)methyl)pyridine, L² = (E)-2-(1-phenyl-2-(1-(pyridin-2-yl)ethylidene)hydrazinyl)pyridine, L³ = (E)-2-(phenyl(2-phenyl-2-(pyridin-2-yl)hydrazono) methyl)pyridine. The molecular structures of all the complexes 1 , 2 and 3 were determined by using single crystal X-ray diffraction. These complexes showed excellent catalytic activities such as transfer hydrogenation and alcohol oxidation. Theoretical calculations have been performed to understand the electronic properties of all the complexes using B3LYP as a function and LANL2DZ as a basis set.