A series of ruthenium(II) organometallic complexes incorporating pyridine-2-carboxylato ligand: Detailed spectroscopic and computional studies

The reaction of Ru(κ2C,O-RL)(PPh3)2(CO)Cl, 1 with excess sodium salt of pyridine-2-carboxylic acid (Napic) furnishes the complexes of the type Ru(κ1C-RL)(PPh3)2(CO) (pic), 2(R) with excellent yield (κ2C,O-RL is C6H2O-2-CHNHC6H4R(p)-3-Me-5, κ1C-RL is C6H2OH-2-CHNC6H4R(p)-3-Me-5 and R is Me, OMe, Cl). The chelation of pic is attended with the cleavage of Ru–O and Ru–Cl bonds and iminium–phenolato→imine–phenol prototropic shift. The 1 ​→ ​2 conversion is irreversible and the type 2 species are thermodynamically more stable than the acetate, nitrite and nitrate complexes of 1. The spectral (UV–vis, IR, 1H NMR) and electrochemical data of the complexes are reported. In dichloromethane solution the complexes display one quasi–reversible RuIII/RuII cyclic voltammetric response with E1/2 in the range 0.72–0.80 ​V vs. Ag/AgCl. The crystal and molecular structure of Ru(κ1C-MeOL)(PPh3)2(CO)(pic)∙CH3CN is reported which revealed distorted octahedral RuC2P2NO coordination sphere. The pairs (P, P), (C, O) and (C, N) define the three trans directions. The electronic structures of the complexes are also scrutinized by density functional theory (DFT) and time–dependent density functional theory (TD–DFT) calculations.