Noninnocently Behaving Bridging Anions of the Widely Distributed Antioxidant Ellagic Acid in Diruthenium Complexes

Dinuclear compounds [L2Ru(μ-E)RuL2](n) where L is acetylacetonate (acac(-), 2,4-pentanedionate), 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy), or 2-phenylazopyridine (pap) and EH4 is ellagic acid, an antioxidative bis-catechol natural product, were studied by voltammetric and spectroelectrochemical techniques (UV-vis-NIR and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR)). The electronic structures of the isolated forms (NBu4)2[(acac)2Ru(μ-E)Ru(acac)2] ((NBu4)2[1]), [(bpy)2Ru(μ-E)Ru(bpy)2]ClO4 ([2]ClO4), and [(pap)2Ru(μ-E)Ru(pap)2] ([3]) were characterized by density functional theory (DFT) in conjunction with EPR and UV-vis-NIR measurements. The crystal structure of (NBu4)2[1] revealed the meso form and a largely planar Ru(μ-E)Ru center. Several additional charge states of the compounds were electrochemically accessible and were identified mostly as complexes with noninnocently behaving pap(0/•-) or bridging ellagate (E(n-)) anions (n = 2, 3, 4) but not as mixed-valence intermediates. The free anions E(n-), n = 1-4, were calculated by time-dependent DFT to reveal NIR transitions for the radical forms with n = 1 and 3 and a triplet ground state for the bis(o-semiquinone) dianion E(2-).