Solid-state thermolysis of a fac-rhenium(I) carbonyl complex with a redox non-innocent pincer ligand

The development of rhenium(I) chemistry has been restricted by the limited structural and electronic variability of the common pseudo-octahedral products fac-[ReX(CO)3L2] (L2 = α-diimine). We address this constraint by first preparing the bidentate bis(imino)pyridine complexes [(2,6-{2,6-Me2C6H3N=CPh}2C5H3N)Re(CO)3X] (X = Cl 2, Br 3), which were characterized by spectroscopic and X-ray crystallographic means, and then converting these species into tridentate pincer ligand compounds, [(2,6-{2,6-Me2C6H3N=CPh}2C5H3N)Re(CO)2X] (X = Cl 4, Br 5). This transformation was performed in the solid-state by controlled heating of 2 or 3 above 200 °C in a tube furnace under a flow of nitrogen gas, giving excellent yields (≥95 %). Compounds 4 and 5 define a new coordination environment for rhenium(I) carbonyl chemistry where the metal center is supported by a planar, tridentate pincer-coordinated bis(imino)pyridine ligand. The basic photophysical features of these compounds show significant elaboration in both number and intensity of the d-π* transitions observed in the UV/Vis spec tra relative to the bidentate starting materials, and these spectra were analyzed using time-dependent DFT computations. The redox nature of the bis(imino)pyridine ligand in compounds 2 and 4 was examined by electrochemical analysis, which showed two ligand reduction events and demonstrated that the ligand reduction shifts to a more positive potential when going from bidentate 2 to tridentate 4 (+160 mV for the first reduction step and +90 mV for the second). These observations indicate an increase in electrostatic stabilization of the reduced ligand in the tridentate conformation. Elaboration on this synthetic methodology documented its generality through the preparation of the pseudo-octahedral rhenium(I) triflate complex [(2,6-{2,6-Me2C6H3N=CPh}2C5H3N)Re(CO)2OTf] (7, 93 % yield).