Oxidative addition to dimethylplatinum (II) compounds containing bulky nitrogen ligands: crystal structures of compounds [PtMe3I{(Me2NCH2CH2NCH)Ar}] (Ar = phenanthryl or anthryl)

Oxidative addition of methyl iodide to platinum (II) compounds PtMe₂{(Me₂NCH₂CH₂NCH)Ar}] (Ar = phenanthryl or anthryl) produced the corresponding platinum (IV) compounds. Processes aimed at reducing the steric crowding at the coordination sphere of the platinum (IV) centre such as C-C restricted rotation of the pendant part of the ligand leading to rotamers and isomerisation of the CN moiety have been detected in solution. The obtained platinum (IV) compounds were characterised by elemental analyses, mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy. According to the crystallographic characterisation, the anthracene derivative gave an E conformer while a Z conformation was obtained for the phenanthrene derivative. In order to rationalize the experimental results, DFT calculations have been performed.