Tuning the Rotational Behavior of Lopsided Heterocyclic Nitrogen Ligands (L) in Octahedral cis-[Ru(bpy)2(L)2](PF6)2 Complexes. A Variable-Temperature 1H NMR Study

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Abstract
In this paper are presented the syntheses, characterizations, and dynamic solution behaviors of three cis-[Ru(bpy)2(L)2] (bpy = 2,2‘-bipyridine) complexes, 1 − 3, in which L represents the monodentate ligands 1-methylimidazole (MeIm), 1,2-dimethylimidazole (Me2Im), and 1-methylbenzimidazole (MeBim), respectively. Because of their different steric properties, these three monodentate ligands yield complexes that show quite different fluxional behaviors in solution. These behaviors are studied with several 1H NMR techniques at various temperatures between −95 and +55 °C. The 1H NMR spectra of 1, which has the smallest monodentate ligand of the three used, indicate the complex to be in fast exchange (i.e., the imidazoles rotate around their Ru−N axes) at all recording temperatures. The sterically more demanding ligands, Me2Im and MeBim, in 2 and 3, respectively, are in fast exchange at 55 °C and in slow exchange at low temperatures, showing three different atropisomers: two head-to-tail (HT) isomers and one head-to-head (HH) isomer. The newly synthesized bidentate ligand 1,2-bis(1-methyl-2-benzimidazolyl)ethane (mdbz) forms the complex cis-[Ru(bpy)2(mdbz)](PF6)2 (4), in which the two benzimidazole moieties are constrained and relatively fixed. The two tethered benzimidazoles in 4 cannot rotate around their Ru−N axes, and therefore 4 is a good model for the main HT isomer of 3.