Coordinating Tectons: Bipyridyl-Terminated Group 8 Alkynyl Complexes

The pendant bipyridyl moiety of transition metal sigma-acetylide complexes incorporating the 5-ethynyl-2,2'-bipyridine moiety provides a site of chelation for additional metal centers and facile access to multinuclear complexes as model systems for organometallic molecular wires. The mononuclear complexes [CpRu(CO)(2)(C(2)bpy)] (CP = C(5)H(5), C(5)Me(5)) and [RuCl(P boolean AND P)(2)(C(2)bpy)] (P boolean AND P = dppm, dppe) have been synthesized and characterized through spectroscopic means, providing context for the synthesis and spectroscopic characterization of the heterometallic coordination complex [RuCl(dppe)(2)(C(2)bpy-kappa(2)-N,N'-PdCl(2))]. A number of the complexes were further characterized by solid-state X-ray structural determinations. These studies were extended to other metal ligand systems, and the structures of the tris-bidentate ruthenium(II) complex [Ru(bpy)(2)(5-ethynyl-2,2'-bipyridine)](PF(6))(2) and gold(I) sigma-alkynyl complexes [(PR(3))Au(C(2)bpy)] (PR(3) = PEt(3), PPh(3)) are reported.