Kinetics and mechanism of complexation of iron(III) bycis-(salicylato)(methyl/ethylamine)bis(ethylenediamine)cobalt(III) ions

The formation and dissociation of the binuclear complexes of Fe^III withcis-[Co(en)₂(RNH₂)SalH]²⁺ [R=Me, Et and SalH=C₆H₄(OH)CO ₂ ⁻ ] were studied by a stopped-flow technique at 20–35°C, and I=1.0 mol dm⁻³ (ClO ₄ ⁻ ). The formation of the binuclear species, N₅CoSalFe⁴⁺, involves reactions of the phenol form of the Co^III substrates with Fe(OH₂) ₆ ³⁺ and Fe(OH₂)₅OH²⁺. The mechanism of reaction of Fe(OH₂)₅OH²⁺ is essentially Id, while that of Fe(OH₂) ₆ ³⁺ appears to be Ia. The formation rate constant, k₁, for Fe(OH₂) ₆ ³⁺ /N₅CoSalH²⁺ reaction decreases as the amine chain length increases, whereas the same (k₂) for the Fe(OH₂)₅OH²⁺/N₅CoSalH²⁺ reaction does not show any such trend. The binuclear species, N₅CoSalFe⁴⁺, dissociates to yield a Co^III substrate and Fe^III speciesvia a predominantly spontaneous dissociation path and a minor acid catalysed path which are relatively insensitive to the variation in size of the non-labile amine chain length.